


Blips in Consciousness

by Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron



Series: He loves me... [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Demons, M/M, Multiverse, incubus fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-06-30 06:39:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 63,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15746334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron/pseuds/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron
Summary: It's been six months since the demon has been exorcised. No signs of him have been seen, no whispers or even dreams. Nothing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I don't know when I'm going to finish this but I wanted to post the first two chapters anyway.

"Enough!" 

Jason fired one more bullet before turning on the guy. "You rape and kill four girls and you're talking to me about the word enough? Dude," he scoffed, shooting the guy in the crotch.

The wail of pain was worth it, even if it drew the attention of an unwanted shadow. Before he could even chirp a good evening his gun was confiscated and Jason was being dragged off like an errant child to the Batmobile.

"Stay,"Bruce barked, no doubt going to 'clean up' Jason's mess.

"They deserved it," Jason said when Bruce came back. "You can call me wrong all you like but until you know what sick bastards like that do to people personally you haven't got a leg to stand on." And neither does that other guy. Both of them really if Jason was counting that second guys third leg.

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Batman snapped, Bruce poking through afterwards to add, "They're both going to live. And when you get home you're going to act sorry about running off or I'm telling Alfred."

That did wipe the smirk off his face.

Living under the same roof once again,even if under duress in Jason's case, Bruce had to figure out how to parent him once more. It didn't help that Jason was an adult and basically did what he liked anyway. If anything it gave Bruce more incentive to keep an eye on him. As a result, and because Jason couldn't exactly hide in that castle Bruce called a home, he'd learned one or two tricks for at least getting Jason to look like he was behaving. For the kids sake.

Ergo, Alfred.

"They deserved it," Jason said again as they pulled into the cave.

"Maybe," Bruce agreed. "But if I let you kill everyone who did something wrong in Gotham there wouldn't be a Gotham Jay."

He felt a pout work itself unbidden onto his face. "I hate when you agree with me."

"I can't agree with you, I can't disagree with you. What can I do Jay?" 

Oh, Jason got it. Tough talk in front of the kiddies and jokes in private. The only one who was going to believe Bruce was even capable of the sarcastic tone Jason had just witnessed was...

"You know, I think I like you better with the cowl. That smile B," he shook his head, climbing out of the car, "It's about as mad as I am."

He started off to the showers, Bruce, with his long strides, having no trouble keeping up. He muttered as he passed, much too quiet for Damian drying his tiny feet to hear, "So then it's a charming snarky smile then."

"I hate you."

"No you don't," Alfred snapped, handing him a towel. "Now change and off to bed. You have a big day tomorrow."

He went without complaint, suffering through Bruce's horrible rendition of 'Dancing Queen' since it was just the two of them once more. He considered installing a camera, maybe catching Bruce in the act and playing it for the younger two to see what they've blessedly missed out on. But the thought was swiftly erased as he remembered that Bruce was Bruce. Somehow, some way, even if Jason managed to install a camera it would inevitably get damaged, and lo and behold, it would be a happy 'accident' when it did. 

So he suffered through three more of ABBA's classic hits being destroyed, grabbed his cookie that Alfred had so lovingly left out for him, and journeyed up to his room with one last glare Bruce's way. He typed up his report when he was there on his laptop, knowing for a fact it would end up in the Batcomputer anyway. But, it was his small sign of rebellion to do it here instead of the cave where Bruce could watch over his typo's so Jason counted it as a win. 

All in all, he got an early night all things considered. There were no fights keeping him awake between Damian and Tim. Nor any fires started by any of the many pyromaniacs that lived in this house. There wasn't even an annoying sibling knocking on his door for some semblance of sanctuary from the mayhem that was the manor. So Jason dropped off fairly quickly, wishing when he woke that he hadn't.

The sun was out, like it was purposefully taunting him that today was supposed to be a good, big day. It made the gardens shine as the rain from yesterday lingered on the dewy leaves. A beautiful image to wake up to. Also a sickening one since it meant it was morning and he had to go down for breakfast.

His suit was already hanging on his doorknob when he checked, and Jason didn't really see a point in letting it linger there as he changed into the stifling three piece and went to join the rest of the brood. Tim gave him a wolf whistle as he slid into his seat, and not even a kick under the table could wipe the smirk off his face.

"It's not even eight, why are you awake?" Jason griped, snatching his pancakes as any good big brother should do. It wasn't like he was going to eat them anyway. Tim lived on a diet of air and coffee on the best of days.

"I couldn't exactly miss this now could I?" Tim said. "What are you going to say to the press?"

Jason pretended to think about it, "Fuck you, it's none of your business."

"I was only asking," Tim's grin still didn't waver.

"No that's literally what I'm going to say," Jason said.

"I'm not surprised," Bruce said, striding his way into the kitchen. He, like Tim, was looking too awake for this time in the morning. Especially since this was his hibernation period. "You said the same thing to the press the day I introduced you to them."

"Really?" Tim asked.

Bruce nodded, "They had to censor it, obviously, but I can still recall the look on Vicki Vale's face when Jason started cussing her out." He didn't grin, not like he had last night, nor did he give any sign of mirth other than the warmness in his tone as he said, "You have to understand, they were used to Dick at this point. From day one he was trying to charm his way into the paper's good columns."

Growing up in the circus meant Dick was used to bad press. Even after the tragedy of his parents deaths he was able to keep his head when invasive questions were asked. If not, a lot worse things could have been said than Wayne adopting a gypsy. 

The table fell silent anyway at the mention of Dick, breakfast seeming much too important to ignore in favour of talk. Even Bruce dug into his pancakes, sniffing around for more once he was done since one didn't get to that bulk on one pancake alone. 

Eventually however, not even breakfast could stop the passage of time and before Jason knew it he was being bundled into one of Bruce's expensive cars, Tim too since he somehow persuaded Bruce to bring him and they were driving into town.

"Remember, just let me talk, they're going to be ravenous for a story. Anything you say will be used against you." It was like Bruce had forgotten Jason did know how to talk to reporters. Yes he had gotten off to a bumpy start, but by the time he was fifteen he was giving Dick a run for his money in the charm department. 

"If you get really frustrated you could always just zombie out," Tim piped up. "Give them a few moans and 'brains'," he mimed, "They'll probably be so scared they'll run for cover."

Jason bit down his own smile, "Er, I'll have you know that's zombiest. As a zombie, I'm offended. You've offended me with your stereotype. Bruce, punish the boy."

Bruce didn't, just looked down on Tim muttering, "Why did I bring you," in that sorrowful tone all parents used when they realised they had made a bad decision.

"Because you love me," Tim tried, and it looked like the two of them really were in a good mood this morning since the pair of them burst out laughing. 

It was just wrong. So wrong, and Jason told them so as they stepped out to where a whole host of reporters were already waiting for them. 

The press conference, at the time, felt like it went on for an age. In reality, it was probably one of the fastest ones Jason had ever attended, and he'd assassinated people at these things before, it could get long up there just waiting for the perfect shot. The reporters, naturally, had questions, all of them ranging from just why Jason wanted to open this charity, to which Bruce answered, to his return from the dead, which Bruce also answered. Without his own input, the reporters had nothing to fish for, and could only nod along at Bruce's words, knowing they were going to get grilled later for not getting a primary source for their article.

It went better than his last one anyway. The one where Bruce declared him alive again. That one had been a doozy. From the moment he'd woke to see Bruce's name in the paper, the journalists speculating as to why Bruce was going to court, to having to give an 'I'm alive' speech near nightfall he'd never wished for death more. Unfortunately, Bruce wasn't having any of that. Apparently since Jason was back under his roof, and they were supposedly 'on the mend' Alfred lay down the law and ordered Bruce to the courthouse so he could get his favourite Robin back- Jason's words for which there was an altercation afterwards as Tim and Damian fought tooth and nail for that title themselves. Therefore, since anything Alfred says goes, Jason could no longer hide the fact that he was alive and kicking. 

If he was honest with himself, it was kind of nice being alive again. He could go out with Bruce and Alfred in public now. A feat he was definitely enjoying as every time a reporter cornered them Jason said Bruce was making up for lost birthday presents. Last time Jason got himself a nice new jacket. One he was sure Damian had stolen. 

There were also other perks like getting his actual drivers licence and being able to drive Bruce's fancy cars. He could vote too. He could also enrol in college, something Alfred was pressing him to do and Jason was actually considering. But, most importantly, he was in that stupid family portrait now. 

He'd waited an age to get himself in there. Ever since he saw Tim's smug face smirking out at him from that oily canvas Jason had promised all the Gods listening old and new he was going to find a way to get himself in there too. Which he did. As soon as the paperwork had been completed he took that stupid portrait, gave it to Damian and bribed the kid with a trip to the pet shop. He also stopped by another artist's studio and got a rather large portrait of himself commissioned. Alfred loved it. The other's, not so much. Mainly because it hung right outside Tim's door and covered floor to ceiling with his beautiful face. Watching the brat, always. 

See how he liked having a big brother now. Dick had been going too easy on them all these years.

So being alive was okay, but it meant he had to do stupid things like this. His charity had been Bruce's idea, a way for Jason to help outside of his costume as well as in it. That video had hit close to home for Bruce, probably because he hadn't known just what he'd taken in when he picked Jason up off the streets. Regardless, when the opportunity presented itself Bruce hinted rather strongly that perhaps Jason should start a charity to help rape victims, a one that didn't discriminate between high society hiding a dark secret and the prostitutes that lined the sidewalk. 

Maybe if something like this had been around when he was a kid... nah, who was he kidding, his mom hadn't been standing on street corners. These were her drug dealers, her husband's friends, no amount of charity would have gotten her away from that life, and therefore wouldn't have made a lick of difference in Jason's life. Still, it would help someone, so Jason wasn't too opposed to taking it on.

After the press conference was, finally, done, they went to lunch. A nice greasy joint that made them stand out like peacocks in their fancy suits. 

Bruce was near demolishing his burger when it came to him. Tim, not so much. This was his grazing hour, he would start picking up an appetite around four, maybe eat half a cupboard and then have a nice big meal with the family. Weirdo.

"It's not that bad," Jason chuckled, enjoying the red meat on his own tongue regardless. "Besides, you're the one who agreed to go Vegetarian in the manor."

"I'm supporting Damian," Bruce chewed out, his manners all but forgotten. "But that doesn't mean I don't miss meat."

"You're such a liar," Jason grinned. "The only reason you're not having meat at home is because Damian dared you couldn't make it a month. That and I know about your disagreement with the butchers."

"Watch your mouth," Bruce warned, turning Tim's curious face down to his burger. 

They got a doggy bag, Bruce ordering another burger to sneak into the manor for later.

Ace was there to greet them when they got back, barrelling the waif that was Tim over now the dog reached his midsection on all fours. Jason stopped to admire it, pointedly ignoring Bruce handing off Tim's leftover burger to Alfred. Damian, naturally, sniffed out the meat regardless, and Jason was treated to that little spectacle as the day dwindled and the excitement died down to normal everyday bat stuff.

"It's your night off," Tim told him before he ventured down to the cave. "Read a book or something."

"I might," Jason sighed, glancing longingly towards the cave and his lovely bike. He perked right up before Tim could comment on it, "Maybe I'll even call around for another painter. Get another portrait commissioned. What do you say Tim? Fancy looking at this the rest of your existence. I'll put it right above your bed, on the ceiling even. Maybe I'll even loose the shirt."

Tim gave him a dark look before slipping off into the shadows. 

With one last chuckle Jason went to hunt down Alfred, doing whatever task would alleviate Alfred's workload for the night before finally faced with the inevitability of his life. Grabbing the doggy bag Alfred had put in the fridge, he heated the burger back up, even put it on a fancy plate complete with beverage, before trailing the stairs to Dick's room.

He knocked with his foot, "It's me." There was a strong temptation to leave the food and go. One Jason fought with every fibre of his being. 

This was Dick. His brother. Dick. 

He knocked again, "You awake?"

"Yeah," came the eventual reply. The door opened, Dick's dishevelled head appearing through the crack. "I thought Damian had banned meat for a month."

"Bruce got us some today. He figured the ban only meant for in the manor. Besides, this was Tim's so..." Everyone knew Tim wasn't going to be obeying Damian's demands, bet or not, for a month. A week, maybe. But Tim was picky, he didn't want to think about limiting the poor kids diet further by removing meat. "I can leave it," Jason offered when the door didn't open any further, moving to place the plate on the floor.

"No," Dick grabbed it.

He was... looking okay. Especially because the last time they had seen each other face to face it had been just after the exorcism. Jason had needed to make sure Dick was still alive which, considering he hadn't been breathing when they picked the lock, was a pretty indefinite thing. Since then Jason had done his utmost to remain off the night off rota and when he was, their interactions were done through the door. 

Tonight had been the first night Jason had the courage to even wait for a reply never mind see him in person. It was, oddly comforting. 

"How are you feeling?" Jason asked. 

The big bite into the burger answered the hungry part, the lingering eyes staring guiltily back at Jason answered the rest. "I'm okay," he said regardless. "Just tired." He kicked his foot into the carpet, taking another bite, "How's the outside world? It's hard to tell since I only get biased news stories."

"In that case you'll be happy to know it's as shitty as ever."

Dick choked on his burger stifling a laugh.

"No, in all seriousness, it's okay. No major crimes, no alien attacks, Bruce thinks something big is coming because of that, but he always thinks that so, I don't know. In other news the press is still as awful as I remember, no doubt you've been reading up on that. Tim's horrible, Damian's okay, Bruce has started thinking he's funny again so I would watch out the next time he comes to visit you and... I think that's it."

"How funny?" Dick latched onto.

Jason stifled a grin, glad to know he wasn't the only one enjoying this little reunion. "He was singing ABBA in the showers last night."

"No," Dick gasped.

"Three songs. The brats are lucky they don't have to put up with this stuff."

"You know," Dick thought, leaning against his door frame, "I do remember him making a joke the other night. I was a bit out of it though so I thought I was hallucinating. It was about Superman's undies."

It was Jason's turn to gasp, Dick nodding like a gossiping old woman. They shared a laugh, Dick polishing off the rest of his burger. "I've missed you," Jason blurted out. "Don't tell anyone," he hissed when Dick did nothing but stare at him. "But, I have." Usually, before all of this, whenever Jason would come to the manor Dick would be there. He acted as a buffer between Jason and Bruce, seeming to just sense when Jason needed to come home for a few hours. He was always the one to drag Jason from whatever room he'd holed himself up in and force him to do something 'fun'. It was weird, now that he was living here, that Dick wasn't to be seen. 

He understood why. God knows he did. But it was still weird.

"I've missed you too," Dick said. "You're finally integrating with the family and I'm missing it."

"You're not missing much," Jason promised. "The most I've come to bonding with our so called siblings is driving Damian to his drama class."

"Damian's in a drama class?" Dick asked.

Jason shushed him, nodding, "Don't tell Bruce. He wants it to be kept a secret. Especially now he's got the lead in Much Ado."

Dick's grin slipped, leaving him more falling onto the door than leaning, "I'm going to miss it, aren't I? You know he usually would have told me that stuff and now... I'm barely awake when he does come visit." Damian always opted for the afternoon to visit Dick. He didn't seem to grasp that morning was when Dick was most active, trying to do his daily routine, venturing outside his room if he could and taking a walk around the gardens with Alfred. By afternoon, Dick was ready to nap. Unless Damian had the night off Dick was usually always asleep when he came to visit. It had led to a few tantrums around the manor. 

"It's not like he wanted to tell me," Jason soothed. "He had no choice. I followed him in one day when his bogus excuse of botany wore thin. Besides, you're getting there. Damian's play isn't for another few weeks. I bet, if you time it right, you could make it."

"Maybe." Some spark was back in Dick's eyes, the one that spoke of detailed planning. 

"Cass would probably be up to helping you too. She should be coming home tomorrow. I think her and Alfred are the only ones Damian voluntarily told." Probably because Cass had also followed him into a class and Alfred had been helping Damian rehearse. 

"Lucky," Dick sighed. He chanced a glance up at Jason, "How are you?"

Jason shrugged, "As I said before, not bad. Things could be better."

"Really?" Dick shook his head, "I swear I wish I had your resolve."

The air shifted, the easy back and forth leaving in place an uneasy silence. They were really venturing there. Here Jason had hoped they could leave that for another day. "I-" he tried again. "I'm not okay Dick. I never will be. But worse things have happened than a demon trying to get a leg over. I mean I died, so, my tolerance for this crap is pretty high. But you, I mean, this thing took months of your life. It's messed up your life. You're allowed to take your time."

Dick gave him a tight smile, "Thanks."

He waited a beat longer before saying, "Yeah," Motioning backwards. "I think I'm gonna find a book."

"And I have housewives to catch up with," Dick latched on, the two of them saying awkward goodbyes.

Jason cursed himself all the way to the library. What had he been expecting? A long, drawn out conversation about feelings? He didn't like that on the best of days yet he'd been eager to have one there. Maybe it was the fact that the demon had been so forthcoming with himself. He'd had no problem manipulating Jason through little heart to hearts, giving up his own supposed weaknesses to listen to Jason's. To expect the same from Dick was idiotic.

Dick was as tight lipped as Bruce when he wanted to be. Yes, he was good with feelings, he liked that emotional stuff, but only with others. If it comes down to himself and what he's going through, well, Jason just got the bare 'okay'. Nothing else. 

He should have just left the plate.

But then, Jason figured, he wouldn't have known whether he was ever able to look at Dick again. 

For months he'd feared he would revert back to shaking in fright at Dick's form. This time it had been much worse after all. This time the demon had been Dick. He'd been in Dick's body, and Jason had thought he would be questioning everything whenever he so much as heard his brother's voice. Yet, standing there, in front of Dick, he couldn't believe he'd been so stupid for so long. That was Dick, the one complaining in his doorway, the one so eager to talk about anything but himself. That was him, and Jason was able to stand near him. He was able to look and talk with him.

It was better than anything he could have hoped for.

He found one of his favourites books to set him over until morning, dozing in a light dream as Damian ran past the door for breakfast. He considered following, stopping after a moment to turn back and trudge to Dick's room once more. 

It was no less hard to knock as it had been before, nor did he loose the feeling to run as fast as he could before Dick reached the door, but when Dick answered it, that same sickening fear fled once more. "Thought you might like to venture to the kitchen this morning."

Dick blearily smiled, holding out his arms like the princess he was. 

Jason carried him easily down, sneaking glances here and there to the dark circles under Dick's eyes. Despite the demon having been long gone for months now Dick wasn't fully recovered. It was like his body wasn't used to being able to hold onto all the energy it now had and left Dick in phantom aches that wracked his sleep just as much as his waking hours. That wasn't even counting the nightmares. If Dick had bad ones before he had much worse ones now. He'd been a prisoner in his own body for who knew how long, and Dick prided himself on full control. To have it taken away, to be paralysed as he was, his trauma didn't exactly leave him able to function as he once did.

Bruce had talked about a therapist, but the mere mention had Dick shutting down. Jason didn't know why. Maybe the idea that the demon had given in and it was too close a reminder had him shying away from the idea. Or, and the option here Jason hadn't really wanted to look too much into, the therapist before had been a cover for something much more illicit. If so, Dick probably would want to steer clear of any reminders. 

This morning, unlike yesterday, saw normality restored to the manor. Tim was still abed, as was Bruce, which meant Jason only had Damian to nudge into his cereal as he set Dick in his chair. 

Whatever glare Damian had for Jason for that stunt quickly faded as he spotted Dick. "Grayson," he greeted timidly, pouring Dick his own bowl of sugary goodness without being asked.

"When's Cass home?" Jason asked Alfred, giving the two their weirdly awkward space.

"This afternoon. Master Bruce has already sent a car to go wait for her."

"I'll make dinner then," Jason said, since if Alfred himself wasn't picking Cass up he must have a million and one things to do. At Alfred's rebuff Jason argued, "It's fine, I have this new dish I want to try out anyway." He left no room for complaint, already checking the cupboards to see what they had in. "Dickie, fancy a trip to the city?"

"I'll fall asleep," Dick said. "If you want company I would ask Tim. It's Saturday right? He should have the day off."

"Yeah but Tim sleeps until noon." He couldn't ask Damian. As soon as breakfast was done the kid was off to Jon's house with Ace. Some kind of puppy party with Krypto Jason hadn't been invited to. "Come on, it'll be fun. And much better than looking at the manor's dusty walls another day."

A pointed huff Alfred's way had Jason amending the dusty statement. 

Dick look tempted, more than tempted since he'd been cooped up in the Wayne estate for months. But still, "I won't be much fun."

"Don't need you to be." He jotted down what he needed. "I just need your beautiful face to charm the paparazzi should we bump into them."

"Fine."

Maybe they were moving too fast. Maybe they weren't. All Jason knew was that he needed to test this out, see if it was certain that he wasn't going to freak out. That and Dick really needed a day outside. Just looking at his pasty skin was painful. So, slapping on some sunscreen and making sure sunglasses covered Dick's tired eyes, they stole one of Bruce's more overpriced cars and zoomed their way into the city.

Like Dick said he fell asleep. As soon as his head hit the head rest Dick was snoring, and while it did drown out the music Jason was trying to listen to it also helped remind him that Dick was alive. In sleep he looked just as still as he had the day of the exorcism, and while Jason may have once wished for Dick to take his place underground, actually seeing his brother unmoving put all thoughts of that away for good. 

They made it to the grocers in record time thanks to Bruce's flash car. With a little nudge he managed to haul Dick out and into a shopping cart where he could sleep around the aisles. It was pretty easy going all things considered. Even when they got out they were only accosted by one reporter, and Dick was thankfully awake enough to ward them off with a charming smile and a line about reconnecting with his previously deceased brother. 

A good trip all things considered. Until they were on the way back to the manor. 

Somehow, and Jason was thinking muscle memory more than anything, they veered off the motorway that would lead them to the edge of Gotham and further downtown. Jason himself didn't see anything wrong with it until they took a turn that didn't lead him back to his old apartment, then he woke Dick up and considered whether it was wise to continue their course of action.

"What?" Dick mumbled. "Where are we?"

"Downtown," Jason said, lowering the music. "I think Father Todd took over for a moment."

"Father..." Dick looked out the window, seeing for himself the streets that would lead Jason to the little church he'd woken up in last year. "Did you black out?"

"No," Jason said slowly. "It was more like muscle memory. But," here was where he stopped the car, "I don't know, it was like I was me but my brain was remembering things differently."

Dick stayed silent for a moment, considering the teens that were stopping to take a look at Jason's car. "You think it's just habit or something more." Like a message remained unsaid. Like Father Todd was trying to break through and tell Jason something.

"I don't know."

They shared a look, twin smirks creeping onto their faces, "Guess we're going to find out."

Call it luck or whatever, but Jason was riding on a high these days and wasn't about to let it go to waste. Whatever was waiting for them at the church, whether it just be a confused priest or something more, Jason trusted that the universe wasn't so abhorrent that it would let him suffer. Not today at least. It had screwed him over so much he deserved a one off curiosity trip.

He let memory take him over once more, his hands turning when they wanted to until they were parked outside of a rather run down looking building claiming to be a church. It looked distinctly less terrifying in daylight, not the subject of Jason's nightmare anyway. The roof was almost collapsed all the way through, and from the condemned sign hanging off the doorknob the church had finally given up on repairing it. No doubt whoever was in there last was sitting comfortably in a nice new building free from rats and damp.

"It looks... nice," Dick tried.

"It looks like hell." He got out anyway, helping Dick when his door opened too.

"We should have brought a torch," Dick said before they even got to the front door. "The electric's probably been cut off, and places like this aren't exactly full of light."

Jason pulled his phone out, Dick's too before carefully handing one over to a frankly more awake Dick. "We'll make do."

Jason was the one to bully his way through the door, his feet stepping around phantom objects, wondering what they would have been in the other world. "Toys," Dick said suddenly, eyes fixed on Jason's feet. "There were usually toys on the floor."

"How do you know?" He fixed his torch down just in case he'd missed something.

"He was in my body," Dick answered easily, his jovial tone not letting up for a moment as he too stepped around the toys that weren't there. "While he had control that wasn't to say I was completely immobile. I made myself a as much of a nuisance as I could. One such way was prying into his head."

"Does Bruce know?" If he did he would have a file. It would be much easier breaking into that than asking Dick about what he'd seen.

Dick shrugged, "Bits. There were some parts I didn't even want to look into." He pointed his torch to the back where the altar stood. "There should be a door along here somewhere that leads to the apartment."

They could have turned back, they knew that. It would be wise for their mental health to turn back. Too bad they had never been too concerned with that. 

Ambling through the pews Jason found himself skipping faster than usual along a few, stopping when he'd reached the other side to look back and wonder why. "This is so weird."

"I know." But for a completely different reason for Dick. 

The door lay behind a fallen stand, Jason again having to interfere since Dick was still too weak to even walk around the grocers without a nap. He didn't mind, especially since it meant he was the first one up the familiar stairs he'd trod up once before. He found himself stopping once more, feeling Dick catch up to him as he looked at the empty plaster. 

"There was a mirror here. The priest must have took it." He felt his hair new, curling one strand until he could see it and making sure it was still dark.

"If it was ever there at all." An ominous thought. "I mean, you came here sleepwalking, hyped up on a blip that had you in two minds. That mirror might not have been there."

"You're just a barrel of laughs," Jason huffed, biting down his fear. He hated hallucinations.

"Better than being a sourpuss like Bruce," Dick shot back, grinning as he shoving his way forward and into the priest's private apartment. "You kept it much nicer than this."

It was empty, as it should be for someone moving out of a condemned building. The furniture was nonexistent, the cupboards empty and the drain hiding something Jason definitely didn't need to see again. He shone his light over the living room walls, searching for something that wasn't there, then shaking himself out of it when he realised he'd lost Dick.

"Dick?" 

"In here." The torch shone out of one of the rooms. "I think I found something."

He definitely had. Jason didn't even need his torch to see the carnage Dick had uncovered.

Along one wall there was a splatter of red, Jason's name written again and again along with 'I'm here'. It was dry, old, days, maybe weeks from the discolouration. In parts it looked like it had been wiped away and repainted once more. But mostly, there was a giant hole right in the middle of it, so big that Jason could climb into the bathroom the next door over.

"I think we might have uncovered a murder scene," Dick said.

"Yeah." 

They bundled themselves back into the car after a thorough examination of the joint. No body had been found, nor any remains that would suggest a body had once been there. Jason only distantly remembered the priest that had helped him, not enough so that he would be able to spot him on the street. But, thankfully, that was why Bruce had the big batcomputer, so Jason didn't have to always rely on his memory to get along in life.

 Naturally, they were accosted when they got in. While being gone as long as they had wasn't suspicious, Jason may have gotten into the habit of buying his little brothers a few treats when he went shopping so, naturally, he had to give those out. When he was done, and made sure Dick wasn't going to faint on him, he sent his brother off to bed and retreated to the cave where, of course, Bruce was.

"What's for dinner?" Bruce asked.

"Vegetarian." He hopped himself on the console, digging around before Bruce could ward him off. He pulled up the priest's medical file, his picture included and sent it into the GCPD's database. 

"What's going on?" All business now.

"I had a strange encounter on the ride back."

A dark look came over Bruce, "The demon?"

Jason shook his head, breathing himself through the panic that came when thinking of it. "At least, not completely. Other me, he kind of influenced my driving. We went downtown instead of onto the motorway."

Bruce pushed himself forward, starting his own search. A low hum came from his throat. "This is worrying."

"I know." As far as they were concerned the worlds had merged. Jason shouldn't even be having these blips. He was the dominant one, the one that was in the right time stream. The other him should have been wiped from existence. Yet, there Jason had been, stepping around toys and driving without thinking to a church. "I know it could just be residual memories, we did crossover quite a bit before the merge, but, this didn't feel like that. It was like he was whispering at the back of my mind."

Bruce hummed again, "It could be nothing," he agreed, but Bruce didn't deal with just nothing, he liked to exhaust every possible answer. Sure enough, he pointed to where Jason had been earlier, "There was a bit of an energy spike. Did you take any of these roads." He pulled up a map, Jason pointing out the one that was supposed to take him to the motorway. It was in the zone, which meant that Jason was influenced by whatever spike had occurred. "This is troubling."

"Not as much as the priest. You haven't heard anything about him have you? The place is condemned." If it had been condemned there would have been a thorough search before hand to even get it declared as such. Therefore, they would have found a body had there have been one. 

"Nothing is coming up." The search was ran again, this time in multiple databases, all across the country. "What did you find. You said it wasn't completely the demon."

"Writing. You're going to have to see it for yourself though." Especially since Jason needed to go back himself, and he was sure Bruce wasn't going to let him go alone. Whenever the demon was concerned, they had a system in place that Jason wasn't to be left unattended. Even if it was just Damian, Jason wasn't to be alone. 

They watched the search for a while longer, Jason's dim hope of finding the guy fading the longer the search went on. 

"How was Dick? I heard he went with you." Aka, did anything unusual happen with him.

"He's fine. Annoyed more than anything about being cooped up."

Bruce hummed again in agreement. He was just about as upset as Dick about having to keep him in the manor. Probably because he was the one that spent the most time with him. Dick would always be Bruce's baby, and if there was one thing Bruce hated it was seeing his baby upset or hurt. Namely because Dick was whiny enough that he could make Bruce regret every decision he'd ever made. "It's good to see you two talking again."

"I guess." He kicked Bruce's chair, "You should take him out for. Just because he can't walk far doesn't mean he can't go out. Let him sleep in the car and take him for a walk in an actual park. Hell, take him to the zoo with Damian. He'd probably love that."

"Maybe. We do need to get him up and about more. Especially if he's going to make Damian's play."

"How?" Jason breathed.

Bruce quirked an eyebrow at him, "I have eyes everywhere Jason."

He scrutinised Bruce for a moment. "His drama teacher told you didn't she?"

"Yep."

Jason sighed, going to rejoin the rest of the family to await Cass' return.

She came just as Tim started his daily binge, silently creeping up on the teen until the plate he was holding clattered to the ground in fright. Jason had a good laugh over that as he dolled out dinner. 

Talk, thankfully, wasn't on the demon, and instead centred around Cass' adventure in London. While her base was in Japan, she'd taken time away to explore Alfred's homeland, her and Steph both, and had a few stories to tell that got a few raised eyebrows from Alfred. The best part, however, had to be the gifts. Naturally, since she'd been in England almost all of them had begged for their usual treats they got from Alfred. Cass had delivered too, Jason's mouth watering as soon as she pulled out that delicious treat.

"I also have this for you," she handed over, the wrapped package bearing Constantine's scrawl. "He said it might help you find the demon."

"Thanks." It might come in more handy than she knew. 

Since Cass needed time to recover from her jet lag she was the one with the night off, which meant Jason was able to suit up with the rest of the family. He hopped in the batmobile, scaring Damian off when he tried to steal the front seat and strapped in for a long night tracking down a priest. 

The church was back to its nightmare state now darkness had fallen. It was made worse by the fact Jason knew his name was plastered around the bedroom like a freaky love letter. 

Damian was made to wait in the car, putting up a fight until he learned it was demon related, then he just sat his butt right down and kept quiet. "Call the Justice League if you hear screaming," Jason joked, the atmosphere changing back to serious when Bruce said the same thing, only meant it.

"We can't take any chances," Bruce said, considering the building.

They didn't take the windows, there was really no point since there was no one in to creep up on. Bruce took his time anyway starting through the building, that cowl pointed Jason's way more than once as, even if he didn't have the same instinct to step over absent toys his foot hesitated anyway in memory. They started up the stairs, the stand still upright which was a good sign Jason thought. It meant the place had remained undisturbed. 

Bruce stopped before finishing his way up, his gloved hand tapping the wall, "There was a mirror here."

"That's what I thought. Dick said I might have been seeing the other worlds mirror though." He breathed a bit easier anyway knowing that it had once been there. 

Bruce quickened his steps the rest of the way.

"It's through there," Jason pointed, Bruce nodding as he went to a different part of the apartment. 

He let the guy be, no doubt Bruce searching for something significant. Jason on the other hand, went straight into the bedroom, eyeing up the hole and the words once more. He waited for Bruce before taking a sample, knowing Batman would want to see this for his own eyes untampered first.

He came in after a while, Jason having taken a seat on the bed. He let Bruce do his thing, just look at the wall for a moment, then the rest of the room, moving when he was bid, before he got to work in taking samples. It took an hour, all in all, to end up back with Damian in the batmobile, and in that time Jason could just sense that Bruce wasn't happy with what he'd seen.

"What do you think then?" Jason asked.

"A lot of things are off with that place. You would do well to avoid it Jason." the batmobile backed up, starting on its usual course through Gotham. "The priest is definitely missing. Tomorrow we should put in a tip for a missing persons. I may speak with Clark too to get the word out."

"You think he's killed the priest or keeping him to feed off?" Since there was no other use Jason could think as to why the demon would take the priest.

"Right now? I would think the priest is most likely dead. The cupboards show signs of mould, the bathroom looks unused. The demon looks like he was invading the apartment for a few weeks anonymously before confronting the priest." The wiped words on the wall were beginning to make more sense now if the priest was unaware of the person writing them.

"We should ask the nuns," Damian piped up, Jason forgetting he was even there. 

"The nuns?" Jason repeated.

Damian rolled his eyes, "I may have a contact that could get us in conference with one. If anyone should know if the priest is missing or dead for certain it would be the nuns. The religious community is tighter than the GCPD database. They tend to keep scandals like this close to home. We could be looking at a cover up."

Jason huffed out a laugh, "Look at you Dami. I'm actually impressed."

"Shut up!"

They went with Damian's plan despite the bickering. He pulled out his cell and within the hour they were pulling up to an orphanage where a little red haired boy was waiting. The kid had the gall to hug Damian when they stepped out, Jason turning to Bruce to see he wasn't the only one in disbelief. 

"This is Colin," Damian introduced, Jason distantly remembering hearing that name thrown around. Still, hearing and seeing were two vastly different things. Especially since Colin was real and not imaginary. 

"Nice to meet you kid," Jason remembered to say.

Colin shied away a little but led them to where one of the sisters was waiting for them. Damian had been right about the religious community keeping things under wraps. Within moments they had more information about Father White than they got from their research. They learned that he'd been plagued with 'hooligans' for months now. At first, he would come complaining to the sisters, telling them to keep their children under control. Then, as the visits grew worse, he started coming to them for other reasons.

"He had a bit of a breakdown," she said. "Saying he wasn't sure about his faith anymore or his place in the world. Then-" she lowered her voice, as if afraid someone was listening, "Well, he was seen quite frequently with a young boy. We think the two might have been involved."

"How young?" Jason demanded.

"Oh not too young," she hurried, "About your age I would say," She said to Jason, "Maybe a bit older. He was lovely too, always polite." Colin whispered something to Damian that had the kid straightening up. "He used to come around here looking for Colin. I didn't let him see him, I wouldn't do that without your permission." Colin whispered something else, not seeming to hear the sister talking. "If you ask me I think the young man was good for Father White. He seemed happier." 

Then he just disappeared. He came around to the orphanage one last time, raving about letting him in, letting him protect the children. After that they got nothing. It was like he'd just up and left. Something the sister found quite worrying.

"You have to check in you see," She explained, "If you're taking time off you have to make sure the higher ups know about it. Yet when I asked they hadn't heard anything. It's strange."

Very, and very helpful too. 

They thanked the sister, Damian keeping his little friend close the two of them in cahoots until the very last moment. It seemed it was worth it however since, as soon as the door closed, Damian was leaning forward saying, "It was Dick. The demon Dick, Richard. Colin said he saw him hanging off the priest. That he was confused why Richard was coming to see him without me. You don't think he's going to come for Colin next do you?"

Bruce said nothing, no doubt as curious as Jason as to why the demon wanted Colin. Also how he'd managed to lay as low as he had without them knowing. But, Damian needed soothing so Jason said, "Look, if we find anything more worrying out then you can invite Colin for a sleepover." He backtracked, "Wait a minute. Does this kid know your identity?"

"He's part of the superhero community," Damian shot back. "I can trust him."

"Did you know about this?" Jason demanded.

"Vaguely," Bruce admitted.

"I see, so I couldn't even tell Superman my identity when I was Robin and yet Damian can tell the kid next door anything he likes."

"Colin is trustworthy. Besides, without Colin's contact you wouldn't have a lead. So shut up."

They went back to the church, this time Damian coming with them as they looked it over once more, this time going along the streets that ran alongside it for anything they might find helpful. Jason found a few CCTV camera's he was already reporting back to the cave for Cass or whoever was in to look over. There were other things, people that Jason kept a close eye on, more so for their safety than his own. He considered going door to door, but Jason wasn't sure the Red Hood knocking would do anything other than have these people clamping up. He knew he would. 

When he met back up with Bruce they went straight to the cave, the three of them splitting off to focus on one task or another. Before he thought better of it Jason dragged Dick from his movie marathon, giving him the book Cass had gifted him and asking him to look through it for anything they might find useful. It ended up with Dick in the cave when curiosity got the better of him. He was sifting through the book in between watching the footage on the big screen.

"You know about Colin?" Jason asked.

"Dami's little friend? Yeah. He's a good kid," Dick said.

"How come we never hear about him then? I mean, it's all Jon this Jon that, I think I've only heard Colin being mentioned once." And even then Jason wasn't paying attention enough to remember now what it was about. An unbidden thought came to him, "The kid's not ashamed of him is he?"

Dick snorted, "No." he flipped a few pages, "But Colin and him, they have a somewhat unusual relationship. Damian can't boss Colin around like he does Jon. It's sweet, I think he fancies him."

"Dami? You sure?" He knew the kid wasn't exactly straight but he thought that in the sense that he would fancy Dick, like everyone else in the world, not actually like another male person out of something other than hero worship. 

"You not see how he looked at Colin? That's definitely more than friendship. He probably didn't want to tell anyone in case he got teased. You know Dami is with feelings." 

Yeah, only slightly better than Bruce, which wasn't much. It was cute anyway, and Jason promised himself he wasn't going to bring it up. He knew how hard it was to even think about someone romantically never mind being raised in a loveless home like Damian had.

They scrolled through days and days of CCTV before they came across the last sighting of the priest and the demon. It brought back a spark of fear seeing that picture perfect visage of his brother on screen. His eyes glowed on screen, blinking out most of his face, but the rest of him was just as interesting to look at. The man, the priest, beside the demon, seemed besotted. He was trailing after Dick like a lost soul, probably because Dick had ate it. 

They were walking towards the church, Dick not seeming too happy with his companion. Jason scrolled back further until he found them once more, watching the gradual change as Dick went from dopey romantic to the uncaring demon at the end. 

"I don't suppose there's any way to kill a demon?" Jason asked.

"No," Dick said. "Believe me, I looked inside his head for one. The best we could do would be to send him back to hell. But, if he broke out once."

"He'll just do it again," Jason sighed. "Wait, what do you mean broke out? He escaped hell?"

Dick squinted in remembrance. "He definitely wasn't supposed to be on Earth."

That was all Jason got out of him, making him all the more determined to find that file Bruce had on Dick's memories. 

They combed through the CCTV until they found no more footage of Dick and Father White. The footage they did have, Jason saved onto the computer, starting through it again and grabbing his notebook. The one thing he hated but found very useful doing was reading lips on CCTV. Usually he would do it when he was trying to catch times or places where mob bosses were unloading their shipments or having meetings Jason was planning on crashing. Never did he think he would be sitting here now making out Father White telling Dick his grocery list.

"Dick, go see how Bruce is getting on, I want to know whose blood that is."

"Okay," Dick sighed, "But Bruce isn't going to be happy, usually he's the one giving the orders."

"Yeah, well, this is my case, he can deal with it." If Bruce even tried to tell Jason to take a backseat in this he was going solo. 

He had three days transcribed when Dick came back with Bruce's usual patience speech, Jason stopping himself rolling his eyes as he caught something interesting in his notes. He kept it for himself as he pressed play, getting more pages to compare it to before he started putting together a real case file for Father White. 

They were there hours. Well into the next morning since Cass came down to tell them breakfast was ready. Jason took his notes up with him, ready for his scolding from Alfred so long as he could just have a few more minutes to look at them. When his notes were finally confiscated, Dick being plopped down next to him at the table, he had a pretty good idea at what he was dealing with. 

"I think the demon was trying to get help," he said, those gathered at the table falling silent. 

"What sort of help?" Tim asked, the only one of them to actually finish patrol and get their usual nights sleep. Naturally, he was awake because his super was coming over today, Jon too, and had even picked at his breakfast so he wouldn't be yelled at for starving himself. 

"The demon's lips are usually covered by the glare, but when the Father speaks he's going on about normal day to day stuff, like, charities or fundraising. You know, church things. Even sermons. I thought, maybe it was just the priest trying to reform the demon but he wouldn't be hanging around if that were the case." If Jason were in his shoes he'd be flying out the door saying to hell with trying to change. 

"Let me guess," Dick snarled, "He's letting the demon stay there in the hopes he'll abstain and reach heaven again."

"No," Jason said, wondering where Dick got an idea like that from. "Can demons even do that?"

Dick shrugged, and from the looks on everyone else's faces they didn't know either. 

"Anyway, my name kept cropping up." Enough that Jason was sure he wasn't going to be getting any sleep today. "The priest kept saying stuff like 'maybe he'll make contact tonight.'"

"He's talking about the other you," that tone was still in Dick's voice, like everything the demon did was abhorrent. Not that Jason blamed him. 

"Yeah I gathered. But, what I don't get is what the priest means by contact. I mean, obviously the play on normality, helping the priest with his duties, is to get free lodging, but why? And why take the priest now when he'd suffered through six months living with him?" He wondered, not for the first time, just what hold the other him had on the demon. It had to be something. Maybe other Jason had like a summoning stone or some kind of demon killing sword. Dick said he wasn't supposed to be on earth. A guy being somewhere he shouldn't was bound to have enemies, and what better way to kill an enemy than with a weapon.

"I can answer that last question, the priest is dead anyway," Dick said. "It's this thing the demon does. He stays with them for a while and then gets bored with them. It usually only lasts six months. You should start looking in cemeteries tonight. Crypts if you can find them. There's no better place to hide a body after all than a place full of dead people." 

Jason kind of wished Dick wasn't out of commission. On a mission like this he was more use than ever, yet there he was, housebound and bitter. Maybe Jason could find a way to sneak him out tonight. He would have to make sure Dick got a good nap today, ate something, maybe showered... 

"Why six months?" Tim asked.

A bit of colour came to Dick's cheeks, "He er, likes to work himself up an appetite. He thinks its better when the priest willingly hands himself over."

Jason caught the tag, "Priest? He's done this to more than one?" Well, of course since other Jason was one too, but, he'd thought maybe this time had been because Father White had been in the same place Father Todd was supposed to be. Like a pity meal.

"He has a bit of a fixation," Dick mumbled, stuffing his mouth with food before any more questions could be asked.

"Unsurprising," Cass said, getting more than one incredulous look as a result. She just waved her fork at Dick, "He has a type."

Which, he did, and just the fact everyone knew such a thing had Dick's cheeks turning as red as the redheads he liked to sleep with. 

A cough stopped any attempt at teasing, or even comparing the two which would have been vastly uncomfortable for all involved. Bruce tapped his newspaper once before saying, "I think I might have an idea what the priest meant by contact."

After breakfast, Bruce led them back into the batcave where he pulled up photo's he'd taken with his cowl of the church. Jason saw himself in a few shots, looking amazing as always no matter what Damian said. Bruce stopped when it came to one with a plain wall, the only object in it the Batman's gloved hand. "There was a mirror there," he said, skipping the photo's ahead until they came to the bathroom, "There too, and I'm guessing one in the bedroom." He looked to Jason like he could confirm such a thing.

"I don't remember."

Bruce skipped the photo's back to the first one. "I looked all over but there were no mirror's in the apartment. They'd all been taken."

"And?" Tim had the guts to ask while the rest of them were pretending to know.

"And," Bruce said, "Sometimes mirrors can be a bridge between worlds. I'm betting the demon saw something one night while he was visiting the priest."

"That's..." Tim struggled, settling on, "Interesting. But the other timeline is gone. How could he have made contact? Bearing in mind as well that Jason's notes go as far back as six months ago."

"Barry would know," Dick suggested. "If not him then maybe Mirror Master. Either way we're going to have to talk with him."

Bruce hummed, flicking through the photo's until he came to the one with the hole in the wall. "I just don't know what was here."

"The blood at least?" Jason asked.

"Yours," Bruce said.

"Not worrying at all," Jason muttered, leaving Bruce to call Barry.

Naturally, with Bruce's very persuasive attitude, he had a meeting set up between the two of them for that evening. It would mean a missed patrol, but when Jason said he could always go on his own Bruce argued that some things were worth more than Gotham. Jason was touched, if a little apprehensive as they stepped into the teleporter. The Watchtower materialised into place, the community of superhero's stopping what they were doing to part like the red sea to let Batman through.

Barry was in the cafeteria, a nice soothing, if somewhat hopeful, coffee acting as a peace offering on Bruce's side. "Just how you like it," Barry tried.

"Cut the crap," Jason snapped, trying his bad cop on for size and receiving nothing but a raised eyebrow in response. "Dammit." He sat down.

"I've seen you in short shorts Jason, don't even try to intimidate me. Now tell me what's going on."

"Flashpoint still exists." It was good to know that Barry was at least afraid of Bruce. Or at least what Bruce was saying.

"I know," he mumbled out. 

"What do you mean you know?" Jason exclaimed.

Barry twiddled with his fingers a moment before deciding on, "Well, there was this button-"

"Oh no," Bruce sighed.

This really couldn't be good if Bruce was looking like that. "So, the button," Barry continued, "It er, had a weird energy signature. I thought it was a bomb, but, when I tried to find its signature I couldn't. So I hooked it up to the treadmill and, well, yeah."

"You have gone way down on my list of favourite superhero's, I want you to know that," Jason said. 

"I get it," Barry nodded. "I'm not really my favourite right now either."

Bruce spent a while with his face in his hands, straightening up when he finally had something useful to say. "Okay."

"Okay... what?" Jason asked.

"Okay we can work with this." He got up, leaving Jason there surrounded by superheros to no doubt start plotting this elaborate plan he had mulling around in that brain of his.

Jason got himself a brownie, seating himself with Superman when Barry was carted off by Hal for some boy talk or another. He felt all of thirteen years old again sitting there. He named the superhero's he knew in his head, pretty proud of himself when he knew most of them. Superman, naturally, tried to make conversation, asking after how Jason was and whether he knew what it was Damian got up to when he kidnapped Jon. He was okay, and since he was still reeling at the idea Damian might have a crush of all things he didn't really want to think about nefarious things Damian did unsupervised.

He was in the Watchtower for a good three hours before Tim strolled through looking right at home. He had the gall to wave at Jason. Also steal half of Jason's brownie for which he was even more sore about. He couldn't even yell at the kid because Dick stumbled through moments later, full Nightwing regalia in place and slotted himself almost on top of Tim in an exhausted slump.

Bruce called them over after a minute or so, Jason leaving Tim to steer Dick as he came into Bruce's little workstation. 


	2. Chapter 2

The workstation had the button Barry had talked about centred in the middle. It was a confusing thing, a red button on top of a box that looked like something the Joker would use. Surrounding it was a number of calculations Bruce had worked out as well as Constantine's face on one of the monitors. He gave them a little salute when they looked, waiting like the rest of them for Bruce to get to his supposed plan.

With a few more notes Bruce finally faced them, looking positively giddy as he said, "I think there's a way we can get rid of it."

"The demon?" Tim asked, seeming just as unnerved as Jason at Bruce's good mood.

"If Flashpoint exists there's a chance we can trap it back in that timeline," Bruce said.

That, well, Jason hadn't thought of that. But now he was he could see why Bruce was happy. If they got the demon back in his right world then that meant no more looking over his shoulder. No more looking at Dick and wondering if the thing had taken over once more, or living in fear of it happening to someone else close to him. The demon said it wasn't going to leave him, well, maybe it had no choice in the matter. 

It would certainly be dangerous. No doubt that was why Constantine was on the line. They would have to have at least four traps in place, and make sure they don't go awry while they transport the creature across the dimensions. But Bruce looked confident, and if Bruce was confident then Jason was. This would work. 

"No," Dick said.

Jason blinked at him a moment, sure he'd heard wrong. "No? I'm sorry, do you want this thing here?"

"No," Dick ground out, "But B's plan won't work."

"It'll be difficult," Jason started, "But-"

"No," Dick said again, turning on Bruce, "You promised, you swore you wouldn't let that thing near me again. If you take that thing to the other timeline you're basically signing my death warrant."

"What are you-"

"Dick's right," Tim said. "Think about it B, if Flashpoint still exists then we aren't completely immersed as one being. Other me is still running around out there. We merged once, but obviously something didn't stick and before we even go into the idea of Dick merging with this creature we have to consider the fact that we still aren't one entity with our other halves yet. If this thing gets just a glimmer of control, if he manages to bury Dick and take over in this timeline for a moment we could be looking at losing Dick forever. More importantly... we've seen who's the stronger out of the two. Dick's right, this won't work."

"So that's it? We just leave the thing here?" Jason demanded.

"It's the best solution," Tim said.

"No, it's the stupid solution. We have a chance here of getting rid of this thing. If you're so worried about the timelines separating again then we'll get Barry to fix up a solution to it. We can't let this opportunity pass." Why were they being so difficult? Bruce was the one to come up with this, and Bruce's plans almost always worked out.

"We, or you? This is Dick's life we're talking about Jason, not just yours. So I'm sorry if I'm not so selfish to sacrifice my brother just to get rid of one demon."

"Selfish?" Jason barked, "I'm being selfish? Forget for a moment that if we rid the demon from this world no one else is going to die by its hands. Forget that it has a vendetta against you just as much as me. So what if I'm being selfish? I was selfless for most of my fricken childhood and look where it got me-"

"Here we go," Dick sighed.

"I got blown up! Buried six feet below. I got raped and beaten and tortured so excuse me for looking out for myself against a being that promised it was never going to leave me alone." He stormed off before he could hear the bad news. Tim would win Bruce over. The kid was sneaky when he wanted to be and could twist his wants into bouts of logic that even Bruce would fall prey to.

So he found himself a nice little niche overlooking the earth below and took a deep breath. He was unsurprised to hear Dick plonk himself next to him moments later.

"I don't want you gone," Jason admitted. "I know the kid's right. But he just has a way of-" Maybe it wasn't Tim. Maybe it was Jason. Either way, even now, even then when Jason knew what the kid was saying was right,that they did need to think this through more than just a hopeful shot in the dark, Jason had to disagree. "I hate this. I hate that iit's still out there. At least the other guys I could deal with." 

"I know," Dick said. "And usually I'm all for self sacrifice, but this doesn't feel right. I feel like this is all wrong, and more than usual wrong too."

"How do you mean?"

"Think about it. We just happen upon the church just as the energy spike happens. The priest is gone, this could have happened at any time yet it happens now. And that box? I want to help, but I feel like if we do Bruce's plan I'm not going to survive it, and then where will you be Jay? You know Bruce isn't going to kill it." Even if it wasn't wearing Dick's face Bruce would have a hard time murdering someone whose body had been taken over. "The best situation we could hope for in that case is that the demon and I fully merge, which means it either becomes mortal or I become that."

Dick had a point. He always had a point. "It is pretty suspicious," Jason admitted.

"Yeah. Which is why we're going to do some research, get that big brain of yours working. We're going to talk to people and we're going to solve this. Just, not this way."

"Fine."

They rejoined the little meet up after a while, Dick giving his definitive no and effectively shutting down any more talk on the matter. 

They spent the rest of their time at the watchtower talking with Constantine, asking the man about his knowledge of demons. When they got back they were met with a solemn Cass showing them pictures of Father White. Tim had sent her and Damian on recon, the police there now sorting out the rather gruesome remains.

"So that's what would've happened to me," Jason sighed.

The body was, not pleasant. The eyes were missing, as was the tongue. The rest of him looked like he'd just died in his sleep, the blissful smile on the Father's face haunting Jason the rest of the night. 

Bruce sprouted some crap about eyes being the window to the soul, Tim quipped he at least went getting his rocks off. None of that soothed Jason in the slightest as he crawled into bed, staring at the ceiling wondering if he would even know if the demon came to him again. It could invade his dreams, mess with his mind. Jason could just have a nightmare and find himself dead come morning.

He gave up on sleep when he woke with a start at four in the morning. Grabbing himself a plate of something sweet he holed himself up in the library, grabbing every book he could find on mirrors, alternate dimensions and demons. 

Thankfully, Bruce's family was a mix of insane and insanely wealthy. Meaning, the occult was wired into their very foundations. While they may not have taken part in the more illegal side of the dark occult they did have an interest in it, so Jason wasn't strapped for reading material.

Around midday he was startled out of his latest find by someone pressing his nose. "Ding dong, time to eat," Dick said, replacing Jason's book with a plate of mismatched sandwiches.

He set them to the side as he recognised Dick's handiwork.

"Find anything interesting?" Dick asked, poking at a few titles himself.

"Nothing as much as the mystery to you being awake right now. Isn't it nap time?"

Dick shrugged, "Can't sleep. For the first time in months I'm starting to feel like myself."

"Good to know." Maybe they should have just given Dick a case months ago. Sometimes it was hard to forget that Dick was like Bruce in so many ways. One being he preferred to distract himself rather than wallow in his injury. "What are the others doing?"

"Tim and Cass are with Kon and Cassie. Dami's practicing his lines with Alfred, and Bruce is exhausting himself like you. He's working on 'the plan' hoping with some modifications I'll agree to it." Dick clapped his hands, "But enough about that. I'm awake, I'm motivated. I want out. Take me out Jason. Now."

"I'm busy too," Jason pointed out.

"Yes," Dick agreed. "But you love me enough to ignore these dusty books and drive to Central City with me."

"Don't you have a speedster friend who could get you there and back without the five hour drive?" He was sure Wally must be pining for Dick by now. Him and Roy both had been around to the manor with the rest of the Titans in the early months after Dick's exorcism. After, well, Jason was sure either their lives or Bruce's threats to not excite Dick too much while he was recovering had them staying away. Either way, Wally must be missing Dick.

Sure enough, "I do, but it's him we're meeting and he's catching Mirror Master right now, so..."

Damn it. "Fine. But you have to clear it with Bruce. I'm not going to be held accountable on a kidnapping charge. Not again anyway." He was pretty sure he'd held hostage everyone in the family at this point. So it wasn't like their concern was without reason.

Yet, "I already have. It was his idea actually. I think he's a bit embarrassed to go grovelling to Barry again."

The took one of the larger cars, Jason getting them ice cream along the way since anywhere that wasn't Gotham meant they would be melting as soon as they stepped foot outside the AC.

Dick stayed awake the whole ride there, blasting his horrible music and poking his head out the window to taste the wind. He really was feeling better, and while the dark circles were still present under his eyes there was a life to him that had been missing a few days ago.

They didn't bring their gear, mainly because Dick would be too busy chatting with Wally to even think of interrogating Mirror Master. Also because Jason hadn't exactly worn his mask last time he was in Central, and while Gotham's crooks were the scurge of the earth Centrals had an honour system that meant his identity was okay with them. It also helped that they'd seen him carrying around a sack of heads like an evil Santa. So, fear was also at play here.

Wally was waiting for them next to a hot dog stand, both him and his crook enjoying a nice meal as Jason pulled up.

Jason let the two overgrown kids squeal their hello's, noting the wide eyes Mirror Master wore as Jason took a seat next to him.

"Oh God, you're not here to shoot me are you? I thought we had a deal Flash!" Mirror Master screeched.

"We do," Wally soothed, "But Hood wants a word with you before I take you in."

Mirror Master looked no less pleased with that explanation, eyeing Jason warily before nodding over to Dick, "He know what you do?"

"No he's just always wanted to bang the Flash." Since the way the two were basically humping in the street didn't exactly leave Jason with anything else to use. "You aren't in trouble. Well, no more than you are already. I just want to know about mirrors."

"So go buy one. You don't need me for that."

"True." Jason eyed the gunin Wally's hand, "But I actually wanted to know about the realms inside the mirrors. They're different dimensions right?"

"A reflective demension," Mirror Master corrected. "But if you're thinking about going in there you might think again. It takes an expert to navigate around, an amateur like you might find themselves somewhere they wish they weren't."

That was an interesting notion. "This reflective demension, is it just ours or is the multiverse tied into it as well?"

"Difficult to say. Why, what do want?" 

Obviously being claimed by Bruce Wayne once more hasn't made the supervillain community think him changed. "I just want to know if it's possible to reach another universe through a mirror."

Mirror Master scrutinised him for a moment before saying, "Yes. It is. But like I said," he tagged on, "It's unwise to go into the mirrors unless you know your way around."

"What about communicating?" Jason pressed on, "If there was energy from that universe in this one and it was focused, like your gun, could they make contact with ours?"

"It's possible," Mirror Master nodded.

Jason nodded back, calling Wally over to take his crook for ice cream or jail, whatever way they did it here.

Dick was waiting by the car for him, informing Jason that Wally was taking them out for dinner so it didn't look like they were making it back to the manor tonight. Jason pretended to be sore about it, but Dick deserved time with his friend. Besides, Jason wanted to wrap his head around Mirror Master's words before starting the long journey back.

Dinner was had in a rather low scale restaurant. Naturally, Jason loved it, even if he did feel like he was fifteen again tagging along on one of Dick's Titan outings. They didn't ignore Jason by any means, but since they had spent so long apart it was only natural for Jason to start fading out of the conversation. It wasn't like he had nothing else to do when that happened, a phone was a phone for a reason, and Jason got endless enjoyment out of torturing Roy for not being the first on Dick's reconciliation list. Especially since Roy had been the one to make the effort to rekindle their friendship all those long months ago. 

Fed, watered and tired from a day of harried excitement Jason found himself falling asleep in front of Wally's TV.

It took some carousing to wake Dick the next morning. Even more to separate him from Wally, the speedster not helping at all despite having a job to get to. Regardless, Dick still hadn't lost that gleam in his eye as he centred once more on the mission at hand.

They headed straight to the cave, finding Bruce really hadn't been idle while they were gone. While the batcomputer was often used for almost everything, nothing beat pen and paper. It brought back memories of long nights as Robin when Jason saw Bruce's little board back out and streaming lines to almost every part of the cave. Dick seemed to share this delight as he started wandering over to one wall making jokes about Bruce spiralling. 

"What did you find out?" Bruce asked, wheeling himself over from his workstation to stop Dick messing up his system.

"We found out that it's likely the demon was making contact with the other timeline through the mirrors." The how and why that came to be was starting to form a hypothesis in Jason's mind. "The problem is we don't know whether the demon was the one to initiate the contact or Mirror Master."

"Wait," Dick called, "You think Mirror Master's helping the demon?"

"No," Jason said, then thought about it again, "Maybe not. But, remember, there's two of them. Who knows what the other one is up to."

"You think other you might have made a deal with him?" Dick asked.

Jason shrugged, "It's possible. Which brings us to the most important thing we haven't even thought about yet: Why is he able to move independently? Barry said the merge was meant to destroy that timeline, yet here we are, and here I am not knowing whether I'm even both Jason's anymore."

"I thought about that too," Dick said. "Bruce, you think the timelines are going to start messing up again? I mean, we've already had a blip."

A blip Jason was waiting to repeat again every time he so much as got onto a road that would led him to the church. 

Bruce stayed silent for a while, fingering one of the strands. Eventually he said, "I don't know. We're going to have to talk to Barry again. Properly this time."

They were dismissed once Jason relayed everything he knew about the mirrors and Mirror Master. Jason himself went back to the library to find his books still out and a note directing him to his dinner in the microwave from Alfred. What the others were doing he didn't much care, nor did he go looking for them as he started on religious lore and the Wayne Family's supposed connection to it. 

A week passed in much the same manner. Not much happened in either department for any more investigation. The demon remained hidden wherever he was, Bruce didn't have any new answers save the Justice League starting to get worried with how often they saw him at the watchtower these days. Even patrol didn't garner any excitement, the criminal underworld seeming to think it was better to lay low. It was as if they sensed there was something much more dangerous at large, and when the scourge of Gotham was afraid, the whole world better get running. 

Really, the most interesting thing that happened in that week was Jason finding Dick training in the cave. Cass was helping him through his sit ups while Damian watched from afar, a glimmer of hope in his eyes as thoughts of flying again with his beloved Grayson started become a reality.

The next week was something a bit more eye catching, namely because Jason had to go to his charity headquarters and start actually doing his job. Meetings, putting up with Tim and more meetings left him tearing his hair out. It wasn't like he didn't know the corporate world. Jason had been a crime lord for Christ's sake for a good number of years. He'd had an empire. But doing things illegally was far easier than doing things legally. Mostly because Jason didn't have to put up with arrogant old men who thought they knew everything about the world because they had a bit of money. If this had been a few years ago Jason could have just shot the man and be done with it, sure more than anything that he probably had a few skeletons in his closet that would warrant the bullet. 

Now, he had to sit there, keep quiet and try to prove to these idiots that he wasn't an illiterate child. The sooner he sat those stupid high school exams the better. At least then he could wave the paper in these old coots faces and tell Tim to stop trying to win his battles for him. 

"I hate them," Jason moaned as he dragged himself through the front door. "I hate them. Why am I doing this Bruce?" 

Bruce shuffled him further in so he could actually close the door. "Because you're a bright boy who needs something legitimate to do with your time."

"So have me work at the pound. I'd love that. Just looking after animals all day. It's much easier than putting up with those..." He bit back the curse as Alfred strolled forward to greet them. 

"Jay you know if I let you work at the pound Damian's going to want to as well. While I know you won't bring home every animal that walks in the door I can't say the same for him." Just the mention of animals had Damian trotting along behind Alfred, already opening his mouth to ask which pound they were visiting. 

Yet still that was the only exciting thing to happen. 

It took almost a month before Jason came in from patrol and saw something he definitely hadn't been ready for.

Bruce was tapping on the keypad to the batcomputer. Not a completely unusual thing so it took Jason a few minutes before his funny feeling finally found proof there was something wrong.

It was the eyes that set him off. The same ones Jason had installed in his own batsuit all those years ago to spite the rest of the brood. They were red instead of white. A tactical advantage really since the darkened lens meant he wasn't as susceptible to harsh lights like the others. Once Jason noticed it, the rest started falling into place. The bigger bulk for one. While Bruce was big, Jason too, they were slim enough that they were still able to creep around in vents or perform those death defying stunts Dick always challenged their way. This guy on the other hand, was body builder big. He looked like he went for strength rather than tactical advantage, which was always dangerous in a fight, both for Jason and this guy. 

The last thing that really set Jason off, and had him creeping around the shadows to try and reach the manor, were the guns holstered in his belt and on his thighs. Long range, compact and sure to have Jason bleeding out in seconds if he didn't time this right.

Thankfully, he'd chosen to walk the last mile up to the manor tonight. Mainly because Tim was being a dick and had stolen Jason's bike, and while Jason may have made up with Bruce he wasn't that desperate to ask for a lift home. Especially because he'd heard there was a car chase going on the batmobile was needed for. So, he hadn't been heard, and hopefully he wouldn't again as he started crawling like the freaking exorcist up the long stairs to the manor.

Dick was waiting for him when he got to the study, a tablet in front of him and his feet kicked up like he wasn't going to get belted from Alfred for doing so. "What the hell?" Jason hissed.

"He just showed up," Dick answered, turning the tablet with the other Bat guy's image on screen. "Bruce knows. He wants me to keep an eye on the guy while he finishes tying the perp up."

Jason hopped up onto the desk, "He has guns Dick. Like powerful ones. Ones that aren't manufactured in the every day store. I think he hand tailors them."

Dick arched an eyebrow at him, "You don't think this is you do you? One of your doubles or an omen from the future coming back for revenge?" It wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened to their family.

Yet Jason shook his head, "That's not me. Even when I was power lifting I never got as big as that guy."

"Yeah," Dick agreed, looking at Jason's arms, "God I miss those arms."

"Shut up."

"They held me nice and tight Jay. Like one big hug," Dick grinned.

"I was threatening you. Shut up."

The batman in the cave didn't do much while they waited for Bruce to show up. He tried breaking into the computer, and when that failed he started tinkering with Bruce's mission board. Not once did they see him pull his cowl off, or pull a gun out, the guy seemed as lost as Dick and Jason were as he eventually took a seat in the batchair. 

A ding sounded, Alfred coming in to give Jason a rather harsh once over, reminding him starkly that he was still in his suit, before coming around and seeing the intruder for himself. "Master Barry has just called," Alfred said. "It seems he is the one responsible for bringing this man here."

"He didn't think to tell us this before we stumbled upon him? I was going down to do Pilates Alfred." Dick asked.

Aka Dick was going down to do something he shouldn't be like training or lifting weights and was trying to cover up by claiming he was doing something less strenuous. Why else would Dick be the first one to find the guy? He wasn't supposed to even be in the cave unsupervised. 

Alfred saw right through Dick's excuse too, but had the decency to stay quiet as he said, "He was hoping to track Master Bruce down in person. However, something came up back in Central City. We should be thankful, therefore, that we even got a phone call." Alfred studied the footage a moment longer before tugging his blazer into place. "Wish me luck."

"Wait-"

"Stay there," Alfred ordered, and like children they did.

"Alfred can handle himself," Dick muttered, more to himself than to Jason as they stayed glued to the screen in front of them, watching as Alfred came into view.

The batman stood straight as soon as he saw Alfred, some conversation took place that Dick and Jason couldn't hear because Tim and Cass cut the audio after they wanted to practice their karaoke without ridicule. Whatever it was, it had the man removing his guns, his cowl too, Jason almost bumping heads with Dick as they made out who was on screen.

"That looks like Bruce," Jason said, the face structure definitely similar.

Yet, "That's not Bruce," Dick said, both of them glancing to the portrait that hung only metres away in the study.

"You've got to be kidding me," Jason muttered.

Thomas Wayne, in all his glory, was standing in the batcave. He was older than his portrait, and looked to not have aged well. Alcohol addiction Jason remembered from that brief moment in Father Todd's head he got. Apparently it was well known the man was a drinker in that timeline. He also knew Alfred if the familiar embrace they shared was anything to go by.

"I bet he cries," Jason said after a moment of watching them interact.

"I bet he punches him to make sure he's real." 

They shook hands, just waiting now for Bruce to appear. 

He did with a rumble that had both men turning their heads. With a flurry of shadows Jason wasn't half sure weren't actual bats Thomas Wayne found himself back in the batchair nursing a sore jaw. Tim, Damian and Cass came up not long after, all of them still in costume and all of them pushing Jason and Dick away for a better look at the proceedings below. 

There was some shouting, actual shouting too, then the crying came and Jason had to admit that maybe both him and Dick had won that bet. Finally, hours later, and with a lap full of sleeping Tim, things calmed down enough that some civil conversation started. 

"We should sleep," Cass said, taking the step one of them had to at one point, and turning the tablet off. "They will call us when they need us."

"I guess," Jason agreed, wondering just how he was going to move Tim without causing a fight. 

He watched enviously as Dick got the better end of the stick, Damian being still small and light meant it was a simple matter of just carrying the kid to a more comfortable location. Tim, the behemoth lanky teen that he was, wasn't anything like Damian. Jason eventually just slid out of the way, snagging his suit more than once in the process before retreating to his room. If the kid was uncomfortable when he woke it wasn't Jason's fault. 

Breakfast that day was postponed until early evening. When Jason finally stumbled out of bed and into his seat he'd almost forgotten about their intruder. Especially since he looked completely different in the light of day and in actual people clothes. He looked fairly normal like this. Ragged still, but not as dangerous as he had last night with the cowl and the guns. A mug of coffee was already in his hands, and judging from the tense looks sent Alfred's way Thomas' attempt to make it Irish had not went over well. 

Bruce was seated opposite, looking so much like his old man it was freaky. Especially when Damian joined the clan and then it was freakier again. Jason almost considered going back to bed, Tim too when the kid crept up behind him. It felt too much like they were intruding, even if Bruce was just sitting there silently twiddling his thumbs. Yet their plan to grab food and retreat was destroyed when Damian caught sight of them. The kid knew what he was doing, trapping them there by manners and social expectations as he pointed their way and said, "Those are the impostors father tagged our name to."

"And there was me thinking you actually liked me," Jason said, pretending to be wounded as he sat the farthest away from this family gathering as he could.

Tim had the guts to actually sit near them, whacking Damian on the head for his comment as he passed. 

Thomas just looked at both of them in turn, Jason wondering what he knew of their counterparts before turning his attention back to Bruce. "These are yours as well?"

"Adopted," Damian piped up.

"But no less mine," Bruce said, more pointedly to Damian. "As are Dick and Cass. They should be down soon."

Silence descended once more and not even food being put in front of them could break it. 

What did was Dick and Cass themselves joining them. With a bang on the table, and Thomas retreating to the counter, knife in hand he hissed, "You let that thing in your house?"

Dick just blinked back at him, Tim stepping in to say, "He's not the demon. In this universe he's just, Dick."

"I swear," Dick said, holding his hands up, "Just me."

"Maybe we should eat in the cave," Bruce suggested, "I should probably tell you more about what this universe is like."

"Nonsense," Alfred snapped, putting two more plates down. "You can eat up here, and if you need to retreat to your pit then you may so afterwards."

Since Alfred's word was law in any universe Bruce didn't budge. It took some time before Thomas thought Dick wasn't a threat however, and longer still for him to touch the waffles in front of him. Jason supposed living on an alcohol based diet Thomas hadn't had breakfast, proper breakfast, in some time. 

It was a long breakfast, everyone almost running out when they were done to separate parts of the manor, no doubt to watch the proceedings of Thomas and Bruce from a safer, less awkward distance. Everyone including Damian who Jason found glued to his side when he took up residence in Tim's horrible room. 

"There are other laptops," Tim complained, eyeing the clothes Jason was meticulously tidying up. "In all corners of the manor. You have one yourself. Use yours."

"We all know you have the best audio though," Jason said. "And the hookup for the TV. So get hacking and put Bruce on the big screen while I sort out where that smell is coming from."

"Check the wardrobe," Damian piped in. "I think I saw something moving in there."

The kid got kicked off the bed for that. But Tim still didn't outright kick them out. Nor did he kick out Dick and Cass when they too crept in for a look at the Wayne show. So far, nothing except catching Thomas up on the status quo of the manor had happened. Thomas had questions here and there about things that were different, about instances in Bruce's life he was curious about, but for the most part he let Bruce do most of the talking. Which was saying something since Bruce had never been chatty to begin with. 

Dick called it adorable when Bruce started putting in a few accomplishments of his daily life into his speech. It was like he was testing things out, seeing the reaction he got and measuring it up to what he thought his parents might have said had they still been alive. He was damn right trying to impress this Thomas Wayne. A feat that didn't really seem too hard to do. 

"He seems nice," Tim tried, not really sounding all that convinced himself.

"He's a drinker," Dick said. "A bad one too. He also owns casino's and half the stuff we try to put an end to in our Gotham."

"So he's someone Todd would get along with," Damian said. 


	3. Chapter 3

To say it had been awkward at breakfast was reassessed as lunch came about. Alfred wasn't too happy to be serving sandwiches rather than an actual meal come seven in the evening, but since things had been a bit hectic and all of their sleep schedules thrown off, he didn't put up too much of a fuss as he knocked on Tim's door. 

Jason quite enjoyed the fact that Alfred wouldn't even step foot inside Tim's room. It was like proof from up high that there was something seriously wrong with it, and while Tim might not have gotten the message, the rest of them certainly did.

"What's the vibe out there Alfred?" Dick asked. "Think it's safe to roam free?"

"Of course it's safe," Alfred scoffed, since no one under his roof, well, in the manor at least, would even think to feel unsafe here. "Master Thomas is in the study, I believe Master Bruce is showing him your photo albums."

"No," Jason moaned, Damian looking just as distraught. Jason had rather a few rather unflattering pimple filled photo's in that album. Ones he knew he would never be able to retrieve without another copy taking its place. Bruce was damn sneaky when he wanted to be.

"Pipe down Master Jason, it's not that bad. Now, if you're done watching them like animals at the zoo I suggest you go interact with Master Thomas. He's just as afraid of you as you are of him." And for good measure he kept his tray of delicious sandwiches just beyond the doorway as an incentive. 

They filed out one by one until they were in the wider manor once more. There, Jason crept down until he was waiting behind the wall, just before the patio doors opened into the garden. Bruce and Thomas were on the chairs there, still talking about the majesty of Martha Wayne's garden when she'd been alive, in both worlds it seemed not only in this one. 

Jason saw the rest of his family do the same as him. Just because, after all, Alfred had said they were to interact, did not mean that Jason was going to be the one making the first move. So, with an argument that was all motions and heated looks they hid themselves away until finally, and Jason was surprised, Dick stepped up. he would have thought after breakfast Dick would be keeping the widest berth out of all of them to Thomas. Yet there he was, straightening his shirt and fixing his hair.

He spared them all a glance, silently naming them all cowards as he stepped out, a cheery, "Bruce," paving the way into the conversation at hand.

Jason went out when the rest of them did, sticking close to Cass as they all found seats on the floor. 

"And then this is Cass. She's like, the third one Bruce adopted since Tim's was only finalised a few years ago," Dick finished in one breath.

Thomas nodded, looking around them all, before focusing once more on Dick. It was apparent, that no matter what Bruce had said to Thomas about Dick, the guy wasn't going to be trusting someone wearing a demon's face any time soon. A wise move, all things considering, but still, it had to be hurtful not only to Dick but to Bruce. Dick was Bruce's baby after all.

"So," Dick started again when nothing more was said, "Do you know about Damian in your world, or any others, or is Bruce just a childless soulless creature like myself?"

There was a collective outtake of breath, Jason hearing Tim mutter, "Way to beat around the bush Dick."

"What?" He challenged. "Like you're all not as curious as I am about the other timeline. I mean, yeah, we've all had blips but this guy comes from there. Aren't you the least bit curious about it?"

"I mean, yeah," Jason agreed. "But there had to be a more tactful way to ask."

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Bruce reassured, and Jason was about to have a conniption because had this been anyone other than Bruce's old man Jason was sure Bruce would have been ready to interrogate him just as much as the rest of them.

"It's okay," Thomas said, his hand clenching, grasping really, on the table in front of him. "If I were in their shoes I would want to know too. Actually..." And here Jason knew that Thomas had indeed been asking the hard to answer questions to Bruce all morning. Jason just bet it had been fun retelling the tragic death of his parents to this familiar stranger. If Bruce didn't go out tonight and knock at least one guy unconscious Jason would be surprised. Thomas cleared his throat, looking around them once more, "I don't actually know most of you. I mostly keep to myself if I'm not working on a case."

"At least we know where Bruce gets that from," Dick muttered, getting elbowed for his comment.

"Gotham, my Gotham," Thomas continued, "It's a bit, darker," he struggled, "Than this one seems."

"Wally said it was grungier," Tim remembered.

"That's Barry's nephew," Bruce piped in, Thomas nodding as he connected the dots. 

"Well, he's not wrong. The manor alone is certainly not as well kept as this one. Alfred left after about a decade after the incident and I didn't blame him."

"Alfred doesn't work for you?" Dick asked, and thus it continued.

They stayed on lighter topics. Well, as light as they could be asking about a twisted version of their reality. Mostly they asked about Thomas' business and his work as Batman, trying to find the similarities and differences in how Thomas and Bruce worked. It mostly ended up that way after they learned about Alfred. Hearing that their beloved friend ended up back in the secret service wasn't that hard to comprehend. Maybe for Tim and Damian, the young idiots that they were, but for Jason, who had seen Alfred take on Bane and come out unscathed, he didn't think alternate Alfred had a hard time keeping his job in the secret service even at this late stage in his life. What had been hard to hear however, was what a life of that turned out for Alfred.

One mission to the Amazons, a recon nothing more, and he'd been captured, tortured and beheaded. 

After the gruelling time they had recently with Alfred's leg neither one of them wanted to ask anything too personal. They didn't want to chance upon the wrong person and find out they too were six feet under in this nightmare realm. 

So they stayed with case work, Bruce growing a bit uncomfortable when his father mentioned murder as easily as any other method he employed, but, like he did with Jason these days, he kept a tight lid on his true feelings. Instead, he moved them on when the subject of killing came up to another case that hopefully had a happier ending than the previous one. 

It wasn't exactly bonding. But it did help all of them relax enough that they weren't treading on eggshells when it came for evening patrol. 

Bruce, for the first time ever Jason thought, didn't even try to keep Thomas from suiting up like the rest of them. The guy was curious, and Bruce was eager to show off. While Jason knew this wasn't going to end well for either of them, he hadn't the heart to break up their fun when Thomas fixed a part of Bruce's cape for him. Besides, they would find out soon enough why it was a bad idea for either of them to be working together. 

Jason, for his part, kept his head low and tried to sneak away into the night. It kind of worked, he got into the city without being stopped and forced to buddy up. But, around nine, he soon found himself with a shadow, one that darted out and almost knocked him off a building as she initiated some sort of game she expected Jason to know the rules to. He thought it was just a way to stop him from going after his earlier perps. The ones he'd had a gun trained to when Cass showed up, but when she led him to Arkham where not one but two Batmen were standing staring each other down he was starting to think maybe this game had been a ruse to get him to diffuse the tension.

Damian had already ran and ducked for cover. Tim had the night off, again, so he didn't have reason to hide, which just left Jason with enough authority and stupidity to try and calm whatever this was down.

He probably should have started by not shooting his gun, but in all fairness he'd never been one for smart decisions. "Hey morons, you realise the longer you stand there the more time the doctors have of getting a good shot at you. They probably have snipers and a room just waiting to be filled."

Yet neither Batman moved.

"Okay, how about we go for ice cream then? I mean, I have ten years of mooching to catch up on."

Still nothing.

Jason chanced coming closer, waving Damian towards Cass when he saw the kid perched on a wall. One of them should finish their patrol. He shouldered himself between them, appealing to Bruce more than Thomas since, well, he actually knew Bruce. "You guys want to tell me what's got your jocks in a twist or are we going to just stand here until one of you dies from starvation."

Whatever it was, the words, or just Jason getting between their staring match, but instead of answering him the two grown men turned and started off towards opposite buildings. He didn't know who to go after. Or if he even should. He wasn't Dick, this wasn't his territory. The best Jason could do was injure one of them and hope that familial bonds won out over whatever grievances they were having as they struggled to recover from a common dastardly dashing enemy.

It had worked in the past after all.

Yet before he could do any of those things he found himself being dragged along again by Cass. 

"We should leave them," She said, and since Cass was better at this than Jason he trusted her judgement.

So, with no Batman to fight, he teamed up with Cass and Damian for the rest of the night. It wasn't that he wanted to, but someone had clued Cass in about Jason needing a chaperone and since she didn't trust Damian to do a good enough job it ended up being the three of them looking good and dropping bodies.

"The other batman pulled out a gun," Damian said as they passed the GCPD on the way back. "Father wasn't pleased. He had hoped they would be left behind or not used tonight."

"I use guns," Jason pointed out, waving an unloaded pistol Damian's way.

The kid scowled, Cass snatching it out his hand to put back in its holster. "You use rubber bullets," Cass said. "At least when you patrol with Bruce. The other didn't."

"He went straight to Arkham too," Damian said, "They had been a while before you showed up. The other Batman wanted to see the Joker."

"You think he was going to," he made some shooting sounds.

The other two shrugged, not as concerned with death as, say Tim or Dick would be had this conversation come up with them around. "If he was," Damian said, "It would explain father's reluctance to let him inside the building."

Strange. 

Still, it was over now, and hopefully the way back would give both parties time to cool off. It wasn't like Jason hadn't expected it anyway. Bruce and Thomas had two very different styles when it came to chasing people down. While Thomas liked to make sure they would never be a threat again, Bruce had a different approach. Really, Damian had better thank his lucky stars this fallout had come about something so trivial as going into Arkham instead of something worse. Like Bruce seeing his father shoot a guy point blank. The trauma alone of seeing his father, the guy who had been gunned down himself, use a gun to take another life, twisting all those childhood dreams Bruce had about his father as a person, would have left a scar not even time could heal. 

So yeah, things could have been worse. 

Still, they could have been better too since as soon as they got back, wrote up their reports and made sure the other two made it back okay, the cowls came off and all hell broke loose. If Thomas had been wondering what it would be like should Bruce have made it to his teen years he was getting an eyeful now. Same for Bruce. The two were at each other's throats like Jason had never seen before, both of them screaming hurts that were completely separate to their individual worlds and refusing to back down. Bruce was saying his father would never use a gun, Thomas on the other hand, said Bruce should have never become Batman. It was one thing after another until Dick screeched, "Enough!" much more effectively than Jason could have.

He stared Bruce down until the man huffed and deflated slightly. Thomas was harder to crack, but Dick only needed to get one of them on his side for the healing to begin.

Dick waited a few moments, making sure neither of them reared up to try again before ordering, "The rest of you, go upstairs. It's late and none of you need to see this."

"Beg to differ," Jason mumbled but did his duty when Dick glared his way to herd the younglings upstairs.

"This is ridiculous," Tim huffed. "I'm not a child, I don't need to be censored."

"Do you want to hear Bruce shout again?" Cass challenged, the wisest of them all. She, like the rest of them, didn't like it when Bruce shouted. She didn't grow up in a passive aggressive house like Tim, where the only raised voice he heard was his drama teacher reciting some play or another. She grew up in a house like Damian, like Jason, where raised voices were the norm, and while Cain was probably not as loud as Willis, Jason would bet anything that didn't mean he didn't shout when Cass did something wrong. Like Talia used to do to him when he was training with him, like Talia, undoubtedly, did with Damian too. So none of them liked to hear Bruce shout and he made it a point not to do so around them. The times he did was scarring enough, so Jason didn't argue when Cass asked them that question, and neither did the others.

They changed into their nightclothes, Jason seeing Damian to his room, offering to tuck him in and avoiding a knife to the face as he ducked out. He kissed his portrait as he walked back to his own room, calling a goodnight to the rest of the family. Yet he didn't go to bed. Instead, he stole his books from the library and set up in the hallway. 

For about three hours he sat there reading up on the old family history. Then Dick emerged from the cave, and instead of heading to bed where Jason wouldn't be able to question him, he passed him by, kicking Jason's legs as he went and inviting him not so subtly to the kitchen.

"I'm not cooking for you," Jason warned, but followed anyway, bringing one of his books with him.

Dick uncovered his sugary treats, digging into them with a gusto Jason had missed seeing of late. He was gracious enough to slide some over to Jason, stuffing his face a bit more before saying, "I think we're gonna have to take one each."

"Excuse me?" Since Jason couldn't have heard that right.

Dick pointed his way, "You're the second oldest. That means you have to take some responsibility when I can't handle it all."

"And you can't handle Bruce 2.0?" He seemed to have done a pretty good job of it from Jason's perspective.

"Not when he's riling Bruce .1 up. Look, this honeymoon period is wearing off and it's wearing off fast. As much as both of them want to think it's their Bruce or their Thomas they're not. I mean, even if it was, even if that was my dad down there, I know for a fact he wouldn't be happy with me. He'd be happy to see me, but as soon as the shock wore in both me and him would have questions for each other. Some not so great ones too." Which was a fair point. If Willis was still alive, no, wait, that wasn't even anywhere near relatable. Maybe going with Dick's analogy was best, since Jason could definitely see Dick and Thomas Grayson both having more than a few things to say to each other. Thomas would disapprove of the whole Nightwing thing, just like Thomas Wayne was now. Dick would be angry about all the risks that were took that night, the guilt at not saying anything making him angry at both himself and his father for not testing the ropes one last time. Then there would be all the things Thomas Grayson had missed in Dick's life, all the girlfriends and school achievements. Everything Dick took seriously he would have a small grudge against his dad against not being there to see him get them. It wouldn't be intentional but the hurt would be there nevertheless.

Jason should just be happy that he wasn't the only one that had these thoughts. If he was the only one saying they should do their best to ease the tension or keep Bruce and Thomas from getting too attached or too invested in each other, projecting even on each other, the better. Still, "Who exactly am I getting in this scenario?"

"Well..." Dick trailed.

Jason sighed, "He's so creepy."

"I know," Dick agreed. "And if I could take him I would, but, you know, he thinks I'm a demon so, sorry Jay. Besides, you'll probably get along with him more than Bruce. You know how you two get when you're in close quatres for more than a few hours without someone buffering."

"Fine."

Which was how, the next morning, Jason found himself inviting Thomas Wayne to the home gym while Dick took Bruce and Damian shopping for Damian's after play party.

"He does drama?" Thomas asked quietly, always quietly, like he wasn't quite used to speaking to other people. 

"He's quite good from what I've heard. Alfie's been giving him extra lessons after his little club is done." Something Jason wasn't the least bit envious about. Not at all. Except he was, quite a lot, since that did used to be their thing.

Thomas grunted, a Wayne trait it seemed, and just as ambivalent as Bruce's grunts. 

Jason was all too glad when they got to the gym after that, letting the Wayne patriarch survey and pick his exercise of choice in peace.

Jason himself did some weights for a while, Thomas' imposing bulk making Jason miss his own muscles. But there were only so many sets Jason could do before his books called back to him. So the rest of his time there he spent it going over mirrors again, finding more information in the fiction section than anything Bruce had on the occult in this house. That was mainly how he spent the majority of his day, sitting there reading books. 

Cass crept in at one point, perching herself next to Jason with her own book in hand. "I'm in disguise," she whispered, watching Thomas over the cover. 

It was such a dumb thing to say and had Jason sniggering into his own book, which Jason supposed was Cass' intention as she hid her own smile. "He's not done much," he said when he'd finished laughing. "I think he's afraid to wander on his own and he doesn't want to put me out."

"You should take him somewhere then," Cass suggested. "Show him what good Bruce has done instead of making him think about the bad in here."

"I wouldn't call Batman bad," Jason pointed out, but admitted Cass had a point. Truthfully, there was only one place he could think that would maybe show that, and it meant leaving the manor, something he wasn't sure he would be able to get away with. Well, not unless he was sneaky and had a sister who was already handing over the keys to Bruce's expensive car.

"Bring me a souvenir?" Cass asked.

"Sure, but you could always come."

She shook her head, "I have Steph coming over to fit Ace for a new jumper. The christmas card is business I'm taking seriously."

Jason felt another grin tug at his mouth, waiting until Cass was gone before jingling the keys pointedly in Thomas' direction. "Hey Grandad, fancy a drive out?"

Thomas stared longingly at the keys, but the apprehension written in every line in his body told Jason this would be a hard fight to win. 

Indeed, it took a disguise, several disguises actually, repeated questions that they wouldn't get in trouble like Thomas was the child in this situation, and Thomas making sure they had lunch with them like a true dad before they were in the garage, Jason sure more than ever Bruce knew they were escaping. That statement proven true when Jason slid into the drivers seat, looked back and almost had a freaking heart attack.

"One of these days Timmy I'm putting a bullet in that head of yours," Jason swore, Tim just grinning back at him, pleased he managed to startle him.

"So Thomas," Tim started, completely ignoring Jason in favour of asking Thomas more questions about his world.

The ride itself was passed with Tim doing most of the talking, filling the silence as both of them had learned to do with a silent, emotionally inept Wayne. They arrived at W.E. around three, Jason pulling up to the private car park and handing over his pass with the upmost pain. "I hate this place," He muttered. Thomas gave him a frustrated look at that, as if wondering why they were here then.

They got out, Tim straightening Thomas' disguise until he looked like Bruce on one of his 'off' days. After that, Jason just let Tim take over completely and spent the tour avoiding the eyes of people he needed to talk to the next day. Maybe if he made his case again he could persuade Bruce to let him work in the pound. All those cute, sad animals. Jason would probably move in after a few days. Damian would join him of course. Jason would have to file for some kind of custody agreement with Bruce. God, he'd be a parent.

Maybe this was the lesser of two evils.

"Are you listening Jason?" Tim asked.

"No," Jason said, not even going to pretend he was. "And since I don't have to until 9 am tomorrow I'm not going to either."


	4. Chapter 4

The tour of W.E. certainly did help them up Bruce's image a bit. Thomas looked to be in awe as he passed the science department, stopping for a full half hour and asking Tim to explain what this or that did. Mostly, Thomas wanted to know about Bruce's involvement here.

"Martha and I," Thomas confessed later, "We left the company to the shareholders. I always hated that place, it was just another way to make money. I never thought it could be something like this." Something that was doing good, Thomas left unsaid. 

While disappointed over Bruce's lack of a medical licence, Thomas had found his pride in Bruce once more. Jason was treated to several stories on their drive to their next destination about little Bruce's interest in science. In everything really. But mostly science. Thomas was glad Bruxe hadn't gave it up. That he'd found a way to keep it prominent in his life.

"I always told my Bruce that he should do what he loves, not what's expected of him."

"Bruce kind of does both working there," Tim agreed. "And he doesn't just hand us things either. I know you're probably thinking that, what with me and Jason working there."

The thought hadn't even crossed Jason's mind. But now it had he could see how some of the questions asked before were angling to see if Bruce, like many parents, was trying to force their children into a career they never wanted.

"I actually asked to work there," Tim continued. "My parents left me Drake Industries and I thought at first it would be good to learn the ropes before I take on a whole company. Now, I guess the ease of working under someone is actually better for me than heading a company solo. But either way, Bruce lets me do what I love." 

Tim turned to Jason expectedly, hinting that he wanted the reins taken off him soJason could start pulling his weight in the upping Bruce up department. Jason just blinked slowly back at Tim before parking the car. "We're here."

Now, Jason actually had another reason for being in the cemetary that wasn't just showing Thomas Wayne his parallel relatives. He was hoping, should either the intense brooding or Tim's continuous monologue keep them busy, to sneak off and see if he could subtly check the mausoleums here for the good old missing father. He didn't know why, but Jason had a feeling the demon might have left the guy for Jason to find.

The gates didn't creak, Bruce paying top dollar for this to be a nice place of rest. It made something inside Jason turn as he stepped foot onto the grass. Memories he couldn't quite grasp outside of dreams making his fingers tingle in phantom pain and head go light like he'd just been bashed about for a while.

"I didn't know we were coming here," Tim said, Jason glancing back to see the kid eyeing the plots carefully.

It looked like it had been a while since he'd been here. Jason too, "They're gonna forgive you for not bringing flowers this once. But, if you like, you can keep the car warm." He tossed the keys back, striding forward before his courage lost him and walking to the stones he wished he could personally knock down.

Thomas sidled up beside him after a while probably taking the time to make sure Bruce truly wasn't there among the others. Or maybe just admiring his own stone. Jason knew he was, or what was left of it. The court had been quick in stripping it away, the empty ground before him full of nothing else but memories.

"What are we doing here?" Thomas asked at last.

Jason shrugged, "Fancied seeing if my name was still here." He could feel the question burning into his skull from Thomas' direction. Jason didn't answer, for once, he had better things to say anyway. Things he hoped Tim wasn't around to hear and if he was would keep his mouth shut about. "Look. You and B come from different worlds. You can't keep looking at him like he's the son you lost because on this world you didn't lose him, he lost you. And I don't think you've quite understood what that's done to him. You're Batman, and so is he, but B became Batman for completely different reasons to you."

He had a whole speech planned, one he got a good way through. He pointed out Thomas' name, making him realize that this wasn't an act of violence that Bruce wanted to exact. He was a kid when this happened, not an adult, and as an adult who lost a kid Thomas couldn't hope to see what Bruce did at his father's passing. To kids, they're taught about fairness. It's simple and it should work, yet when Bruce's family was killed in front of himhe didn't get fair. He didn't get justice, or closure, he was left with nothing and no leads. He wasn't like Thomas who, as an adult and hardened to the world, knew that the only justice was inflicting death on those that sought it. Bruce was a kid. Just like Dick was. Just like Jason, and Cass and Tim. Hell, even Damian got confused at times about why things were swayed in one person's favour. 

"So while you use guns, Bruce doesn't, and you don't have to like what he's done with his life, but you have to respect it. If you don't you're not gonna get- hey!" Jason waved his hand over Thomas' eyeline, "Are you even listening to me, I'm pouring my heart out here."

"Jay!" 

He saw Tim from over Thomas' shoulder, the kid running full speed through the gravestones, his eyes fixed on a point just beyond Jason's head. 

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end just as he was pushed to the side, "You want to tell me how you got here without a car?" Thomas asked, Jason spying the naked feet just inches from where he'd been standing. 

Tim reached them, dragging Jason when his body wouldn't respond until he was slowly backing away through the graves and to the car. The demon, Richard, hadn't moved. He, like Thomas, seemed fixated on the other. Whatever it was, Jason didn't even have the thought to care. 

He hadn't seen the demon for near a year. Not in the flesh anyway. It was one thing being inside of Dick, and another to see him again in his own skin. Jason could feel Tim's fascination warring with his fear as he scrambled against Jason's arm to drag the two of them over to the driver's side. "We get him in the car," Tim mumbled again and again on repeat, his mind, at least, able to remember Bruce's contingencies. Namely, all the demon traps they had scattered around their possessions, the car being one of them. Him and Damian had spent a whole day painting the car ceiling as well as the fabric in the doors so should the demon follow them in, he wouldn't get back out. "Thomas!" Tim called as they got in.

Jason didn't really know what happened between that call and them getting back to the manor. Tim told him, when he asked, that he'd seen Thomas say something to the demon before the man had backed away towards them. The demon, as if sensing the trap in the car, just let them go, disappearing from the cemetery in one magnificent shadow- Tim's words. 

What Jason did remember was the manor's lights above his head and Alfred pressing something warm into his hands. Something Jason immediately threw away as bad things that were also warm being forced into his hand came back to him. 

Alfred didn't take it to heart. He was used to Jason's tantrums, especially when he first came to the manor, and simply placed the back up mug a comfortable distance away. 

It was just Alfred in the kitchen, which made Jason wonder what state he'd been brought in that had Bruce ordering the rest of them to leave Jason alone. Whatever it was, he was glad for it as the light above him started to make him dizzy, the bulb still yet flickering in Jason's mind. It needed replacing, it always needed replacing in his old place, but his mom was always too out of it to go to the store. 

"Where's Thomas?" Jason forced out, knowing Tim was okay as he saw the kids jumper he'd been wearing on the chair. 

"Master Thomas is in the cave with the rest of the family. I'm afraid you've having the night off tonight, Master Bruce's orders." To sweeten the deal Alfred slid a few cookies Jason's way.

Unfortunately it had him fleeing to the sink to throw up his lunch. He felt awful when he sat back down. Not only because he'd thrown up. Sure, it was shocking to see the demon again, but it shouldn't have reduced him to this. Jason had faced down a whole manner of monsters, some just as guilty as Richard and he'd never froze up there. Yet it seemed, somehow, that the familiar face had Jason sitting here, shaking in his seat and wanting nothing more than to take a long shower and maybe throwing up in between.

"Do they know why he was there?" Jason asked once he'd rinsed his mouth out. "The demon? It couldn't have been a coincidence. He wasn't following us either, otherwise he wouldn't have been so fascinated with Thomas." Unless Richard thought Thomas was Bruce. But no, Richard had lived in the other world, he'd seen Bruce, he'd seen Thomas, he could probably tell the difference easily. Which meant the demon had another reason for being there, one that wasn't just scaring the innards out of Jason.

"Calm down," Alfred coached, guiding Jason back to his seat, well, trying to, Jason kept throwing him off until the man just brought the stool over to the sink. "I don't know if they found out why the demon was there, but I do know Master Bruce is looking into it. And I know that you, Master Jason, need to get a good nights sleep. While I don't condone your late hours on the streets I do expect you to get at least a decent few hours at home." 

Which meant, as soon as Jason could be touched without wanting to throw up, he was sent upstairs and to his room. Alfred, naturally, was there with nightclothes when Jason cowered out of the shower after a few too dark thoughts of being watched. Alfred didn't make Jason stay in his room however, like Jason thought he would. Instead, he tempted Jason out with cookies once more and had him make himself comfortable in the entertainment room. 

For the rest of the evening, when the family was suiting up and going out, Jason and Alfred watched old cartoons and some movies Jason himself had missed when he'd been 'dead'. The method, while old, did work to soothe Jason to sleep, Alfred still there when he woke, even if both of them were a little uncomfortable.

Breakfast was late since Alfred refused to attend his duties while Jason was still asleep, and while the others had tried their best, Jason came into the kitchen to a number of begging faces and rather burnt looking food. He made his own and pointedly ignored the others, finding he could actually swallow his food this morning. Always a good thing.

Tim came down around the time Alfred started loading plates with actual food, and Jason wasted no time in asking about his embarrassing encounter yesterday. Tim told him, the others not seeming to shocked at it, which meant they'd heard it all last night and had the smarts to keep their comments about Jason's cowardice to themselves. 

"I didn't think he'd be like that," Tim said after a while. He forced another bite of fruit down. "I mean, I knew he looked like Dick, but, not like that."

"Thanks Tim," Dick said, since anyone could hear the slight admiration in Tim's tone.

 Tim had the decency to say "Sorry," but not to stop himself from saying, "But, he is something else. I mean, you're handsome Dick, but without the scars and the whole, I don't know, he has this aura about him that just... I can see why people would have a hard time turning him away. And that's not even factoring in his personality. I bet he can be charming when he wants to."

Dick hummed in agreement. "Not that he ever uses it. He didn't really try hard in the other world." There was a sharp look Jason's way, as if Dick was making his double something exempt.

Jason didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing that the demon had went out of his way to be nice to him. Whatever the case, Jason didn't want to think about it, and gladly didn't have to come up with an excuse as for why his family should drop the conversation as Bruce and Thomas' presence alone did that for him. The father son duo were late risers this morning, both of them looking the worse for wear as they carefully looked Jason over before battling for the seat at the head of the table. A battle Bruce lost as he pretended to go get some more coffee as he let his old man sit. 

Jason watched them both for a moment, shovelling the last of his breakfast away before gathering up the courage to ask, "You gonna say anything B?" Knowing Bruce would have some opinion about last night.

Dick interjected before Bruce could open his mouth. "I'm going to say you should sit this one out with me. For once, let's do some lab work Jay and let someone more _experienced_ , take care of it."

Bruce let out a pointed breath, "Constantine isn't answering my calls. I told you that last night."

"And I told you, call Zatana or freaking Deadman. Bruce they saw it. He's obviously out for another meal and if he sees us or anyone related to our family he's going to go for them. Demon traps can only get you so far." 

Tim talked over Bruce's grumble, "If you told us more about what you know maybe we wouldn't just have demon traps. You were in there for months, you have to have something."

"Don't start," Dick warned, Jason feeling quite out of the loop as chaos descended upon the kitchen.

With tempers like theirs, Jason wasn't surprised when he saw talking turn to fists in a matter of minutes. Really, the only thing he was surprised about was that Damian wasn't using this opportunity to get a good hit in on Tim. Bruce just ate his breakfast, well used to letting these things run their steam, that was if he wasn't involved in them directly. Thomas too, looking more lost than Jason as he probably wondered why this was happening to him, just sat there doing nothing. Cass on the other hand Jason was sure he'd seen her get a good kick in, if only because they were getting too close to her drink.

The fists turned to wrestling, Bruce taking Dick's former seat and levelling Jason with a look. "Constantine isn't answering my calls," Bruce said again. "But Dick's right, until he does I think it's best you don't go out Jay. Especially because of what we found at the church. If he's really trying to get back to his world he's going to be latching onto you. Thomas is proof he can travel somehow and I don't want you getting sucked into this again."

Thomas bit back a snort, the notion noted anyway. 

"What?" Jason snapped.

"Nothing," Thomas reassured, filling his mouth before carefully saying, "It's just, the demon's pretty sweet on you from what I've seen. Can't believe he'd actually hurt you."

It was Jason's turn to snort. "You haven't a clue what's happened."

"I don't," Thomas agreed. "But I've seen that thing with the other you. Didn't lay a hand on you if you didn't want it. In fact, he went out of his way to make you comfortable."

"Well he hasn't exactly here," Jason hissed. 

Bruce butt in before Jason could go on. "Why were you watching him?"

The kitchen was pretty silent now, Tim and Dick crawling back into their seats, and in Dick's case Bruce's lap which the man seemed to not mind at all- favourite child. Thomas played with his fork for a while before side eyeing Tim a bit too carefully to be coincidence. "He got himself into a bit of trouble," Thomas eventually landed on. "He seemed like a nice kid, I wanted to make sure he was alright."

Jason took that in before turning to Dick, "What's the real story?"

Dick fidgeted with Bruce's tie, "I don't know," he said slowly. "Some things I didn't look into. But, I remember it was something bad. I also remember you punching him for some reason."

"The demon?" Jason asked.

"Thomas."

Well, that wasn't that bad. Especially because, according to Thomas, he hadn't actually talked with them as himself since he was meant to be a recluse. Father Todd, good man that he was, managed to land a punch on the mighty Batman. Good for him. 

"Well," Bruce said, rounding things up. "Whatever happened then, and what happened yesterday means that as of now you're off duty. You can help Dick on the console, you can call Constantine, but as soon as it gets dark you're not out of this house, am I clear."

Jason gave a mighty groan, but, honestly, he was kind of okay with that. After the way he reacted, it being the middle of the day too, he didn't even want to know what he would be like at night, alone, in some desolate street of Gotham up against Richard again. 

"Right," Bruce unseated Dick. "I have a meeting to get to. Jason, Tim, I swear if I hear one mention of you two fighting at the office I'm taking sweet privileges off you."

"What?" Tim screeched.

Jason just shrugged, levelling Bruce with a look, "You can ground me old man but I am still an adult. Just try and take my chocolate from me."

"I will," Bruce promised.

"But what if Jason says something stupid? What if he fires someone?" Tim started, and didn't stop until they were in the doors of W.E and starting up the floors to Jason's meeting with his charity directors.

It was so dull sitting there listening to them bitch at each other. Really, Jason was starting to consider breaking Bruce's little no fighting rule just to alleviate his boredom. He bet he could get a few good punches in on Tim. After all, Gotham had grown up knowing Jason was the rough street kid, it was only right he knew how to be scrappy. Unlike Mr Drake there brought up on fancy cars and fancier dinners. He wondered if Tim would even fight back at all. He took his cover just as seriously as Bruce.

Regardless, Jason wasn't cruel enough to test his question. Tim was the only one speaking any sense here anyway, and Jason needed that if he was going to survive this horrid corporate world. 

He missed being a crime lord.

They broke for lunch after what felt like days. Tim, the good son that he was, dragged Jason up another three floors until they came to Bruce's office where the man himself was spinning in his chair trying to decide between lobster or Mc Donald's.

"Get him a vegetarian sub," Jason told the secretary waiting. "Mr Wayne is trying something out this month."

Bruce pouted as she went away, waiting until the door was closed before mooching some meat from Tim's lunch. "How was it?" 

Jason stopped himself from bashing his head in. "Awful, again. Nothing's going to get done at this rate. Are you sure I can't go work at the pound?"

"Very sure." Tim started guarding his meat. "Tell me what you're having problems with."

"Everything," Jason huffed. "They haven't even decided on a name yet. I thought that was the easiest part. I feel like they're just wasting my time."

Jason had expected a few 'try agains' and 'stick it outs' from Bruce. It was what he'd gotten when he wanted to give up learning the harder stuff in math. But instead Bruce surprised him by saying, "They are wasting your time." He pointed at Tim, "Why aren't you helping him?"

"I'm trying," Tim said. "But it's like Jason said, they're being difficult. If I knew how to control them then I would, but they just see me as a kid. I got told, three times today, to 'let the grown ups talk.'"

Bruce hummed, "If this doesn't get any better I'll send Lucius in. But, until then why you don't you give it a try Jason."

"I have." When Jason did speak, he got shushed, or people stared like they were afraid he was going to fall dead or pull a knife on them. None of them remembered what he'd actually said, and usually they just went right back to arguing.

Bruce huffed, "These people are being paid to help you. The longer they spend on creating this foundation the longer they get paid for doing nothing. After this, they have to start negotiating with people and basically doing their jobs so the longer you let them call the shots the longer they're really going to do nothing. If you really think they're useless, send them to me and I'll fire them. If not, then try taking charge. You know more than anyone in that room what needs to happen Jason and I trust you to make it happen."

"You're giving me the permission to fire people?" Jason got out of that, and oh, this would be good.

"He's not," Tim said, looking quickly to Bruce, "You're not, right? You're joking?"

"If it works," Bruce shrugged.

"Oh," Jason laughed, grinning in Tim's face. "Okay Timbo, we're playing by my rules now."

"You've created a monster," Tim told Bruce.

"Whatever keeps him happy," Bruce said, swiping the rest of Tim's sub.

"Speaking of monster though," Jason remembered, pushing his elation aside for when he could use it in the board room. "I've been thinking about the demon. I think we should break Mirror Master out of prison."

Tim gave Bruce a long look, "You sure you still wanna do what makes him happy?"

"Listen," Jason insisted. "We're never going to know what's going on in that other world until we go to it. And we're certainly not going to get rid of the demon in this world. I say, we break Mirror Master out, take Dick, and the demon, and whoever you want to take, Constantine or someone, and we deal with it there. All we really have to do is weaken it right? Your demon, after all, didn't merge with you, so we just have to make sure that this thing is I don't know, distracted, should another merge happen."

"Should?" Bruce latched onto. "You don't think it's going to happen again."

Jason made a so, so, gesture. "I've been thinking about it. I mean, this world, we don't actually know if it's the other world. It could be, I mean, I certainly felt that blip. But maybe that was just an echo of another world being created out of the Flashpoint world. The point is, however it was created, it isn't dead. It could be something on that side or, it could be that, the timeline isn't in fact a timeline anymore."

"You think it's established itself in the multiverse," Bruce finished. "An interesting thought."

"Is it? I've never heard of a multiverse world being created out of another timeline," Tim said.

"Yeah but you've never heard of a multiverse world being created before. They've all just been there," Jason said. "I read a lot of fiction." He ignored the scoff beside him, knowing for a fact that Tim read comics and therefore had no reason to judge. "I've also been reading up in the library on anything I could find on parallel universes and, well, what is a parallel universe? It's a world that's veered off from our own somehow. So it's a decision that was made differently, or people who were never born living, or even those that died surviving. It could also be a timeline that was created because a speedster decided to go back and change something. Who knows, maybe all the speedster's time travel adventures have created parallel universes. We don't know. I mean, have any of you even explored the whole multiverse?"

There was silence, then a creeping grin on Bruce's face as Tim said, "Huh." Looking at Jason like he'd never seen him before. "That's actually not a bad idea."

Bruce couldn't stifle his smile as he said, "I'll think about it." Turning talk to the rest of their work day.

Bruce was waiting for them in the car when they finished for the day. Naturally, now Jason had been given the power of firing people he'd quickly managed to assert his dominance in the board room. Things, while they were hard to begin with, the people around him wondering just why they were being challenged by Jason, they were actually beginning to make progress by the end.

"We have a name," Jason announced as he slid into the backseat, Tim kicking Jason in the shin for the front. "It's going to be called the Todd foundation, since I'm legally a Wayne and some good should come out of that name."

"Some good has," Bruce argued from up front, Jason near gagging from the cheesiness as he told Bruce about the symbol of a fox they were using for the logo.

"You know, since Todd means fox and foxes are cunning. I'm gonna find those bastards using any means necessary."

"I like it," Bruce promised. "You should ask Damian to design the logo though. He needs something else to do with his evenings so he doesn't stress over his play."

When they pulled up to the manor it was like whatever good mood Jason had was being drained away, replaced instead with a resigned weight that got heavier the further he stepped inside. Ace did his best to cheer Jason up, but it didn't do much more than remind him what happened to the last dog Damian had. There was so much to lose, and now the demon had finally made a reappearance it was setting in just how much Jason wasn't willing to give up.

He hated them, but he loved them to, those people he called a family. He'd probably cry or something if anything happened to them. Well, anything he didn't inflict himself. 

Dick was snoozing on top of the weight bench when Jason went to find him, Damian, as if sensing Jason was going to disturb his precious brother, appeared out of nowhere and herded Jason out, sprouting something about Alfred needing him. Whether that was true or not Jason went to go find Alfred anyway, passing Cass with Thomas in the family room as he did his search.

There was a tray of cake sheddings awaiting him when he did find Alfred, the icing already in small pots for Jason's consumption. "What's this for?" Jason grinned, stuffing a surprising chocolate orange crust in his mouth.

"It's the fifth," Alfred answered, meaning he didn't have to have a reason for feeding Jason. This was always their gossiping day.

Things were semi normal. Jason fended off his siblings when they came questing for sweet stuff, and ate dinner with the family. But when evening came he found himself kicking his feet up onto the console instead of strapping his gauntlets on. Even Thomas was suited up, him and Bruce seeming to have come to some sort of truce regarding the suits as Damian took the backseat so Thomas could get in the front. 

"Creepy," Jason said, wishing Damian was wearing a cowl too so all three Wayne men would be bats.

"Cute," Dick corrected, pulling up his own chair. "Now scooch, I have blue prints to find."

"Central City?" Jason guessed.

"Your idea?" Dick asked.

"I may have mentioned something to Bruce." He took over before Dick could try, easily pulling up his own file and the blue prints Bruce had stolen off him for Dick to read. "This isn't the first time I've broken someone out."

Dick near purred as Jason pulled up guard schedules and the CCTV he still knew the passwords to. "While I don't condone some of your actions I have to admit it does come in handy on occasion."

"Flatterer."

While Bruce had been rather quick to make up his mind, Jason wasn't going to complain. He was being useful, and if this meant they were one step closer to finding some way to get rid of that demon for good then so be it.

"Maybe we should phone Wally and Roy," Jason mused. "I'm sure one of them would be happy to lend us a hand."

"Roy maybe," Dick agreed.

"What?" Jason challenged. "You saying your boyfriend wouldn't break a criminal out if you batted your eyelashes?"

"I'm saying he'd probably confess to his uncle after an hour of doing so. But I'll definitely keep him on speedial to come fetch Mirror Master once we're done with him. You can keep him in check right?" Dick made sure.

Jason shrugged, "He'll certainly think twice about betraying us." 

Which was as good as any of them were going to get.


	5. Chapter 5

Central City was a place of opportunity. Sure, there were supervillains roaming the streets every now and then, but compared to some of the other cities in America, Central was actually quite safe. There was a code amongst the villains after all, and not many of them went for the serial killer vibe, preferring instead theft or other crimes of the like.

Mostly it was safe, namely because crime was usually stopped before it could get too bad by the Flash. 

Something the people of Central City were seeing a lack of today as the Flash was conspicuously absent during the prison breakout. He probably had another villain he was capturing the media argued, when, in reality, Batman had kidnapped him for the hour it took the breakout to take place.

"This is ridiculous," Jason heard as he towed Mirror Master, cuffed, towards where Bruce and the Batmobile was waiting. "I have a job I could have been doing."

Barry was hanging upside down, his arms crossed and looking mostly uncomfortable rather than the angry Jason had expected. It probably had something to do with the fact he was in his civilian disguise for why he wasn't actively trying to get away. Whatever the case, Barry Allen had managed to get some street cred as Mirror Master passed with wide adoring eyes as he actually bitched back to Batman of all people. 

As soon as the door closed Barry was turning on them to, "Get me down. You realise he's a criminal."

"He's also the only guy who can get us to the other world," Jason said.

Barry's arms went wide as he gestured, "I can get you there. You didn't have to break him out."

"We can't take any chances your speed will disappear," Bruce said. "Also, with Mirror Master we don't need the treadmill. I know it's hard to believe, but we need him. Please don't get in our way."

Whether it was the actual 'please' slipping out of Bruce's mouth, the guilt that Barry was behind all this to begin with or just Barry's good guy gene he nodded. Bruce let Barry go, looking like he was reprimanding the man for a minute before sliding into the Batmobile.

"We're gonna bring him back," Jason promised before Barry got out of the alley.

"You'd better."

They didn't take Mirror Master back to the manor. After a week of preparations they had decided against bringing him to the cave even if it would be more convenient for them. Instead, they drove for hours with music they let Mirror Master choose since Jason wanted this guy to be on their side as much as possible, until they came to the old church. Dick's bike was already there, Tim waiting for them in the pews.

A lot of what they were going to attempt was going to be left to chance. They still couldn't get in touch with Constantine, Zatanna and the other witches they had numbers for were also not responding. Which meant that they would be relying on themselves for this mission. Going off the assumption that time moved the same in that universe as it did in this one they had started with their day jobs. Bruce had started some spiel about Jason spending some time in Metropolis, which both Bruce and Dick would be attending too. Tim would go anyway to make sure the cameras got shots of at least one of them, and, despite Jason being particularly against this idea, he'd promised to do an interview with Clark that would cover their whereabouts for their missing days.

Damian, despite his protests, was being world bound to this universe. He had his schooling, for one, that he couldn't miss unlike the rest of them. For another he had his play coming up that he certainly couldn't miss rehearsal for unless he wanted the part given to someone else. 

Jason may have sweetened the deal after Bruce had went out for the night by telling the kid that while they were gone, and Tim was away, that left Damian in charge of the house. A concept the kid rather liked even if Cass would really be the one in charge. Well, after Alfred.

Cass and Steph were going to be picking up the slack in Gotham, Cass promising she'd let Damian out too if he was good. They didn't really have to worry about Cass. She was always pretty self sufficient. Really the only wildcard was Tim.

"I'm phoning Kon as soon as we get back," Dick was saying as they came in. "He's going to be telling me if you're not taking care of yourself. So, plenty of rest, no trouble, and for gods sake do not rile Robin up on the phone. You know he won't hesitate to go to Metropolis if you annoy him."

"It's like you don't trust me," Tim pouted.

"It's exactly that," Jason promised, towing Mirror Master up the stairs to where Thomas was waiting for them.

Bruce, well, he had been against taking Thomas back to his world from the beginning. He seemed to think that in doing so he might never get his father back. But, Thomas wasn't his father, a fact the man had made clear numerous times in this very trying week. Thomas had also made the point that no one coming would know their way around his world, that it was much more different than they realised. Which, Thomas had a point about. 

It didn't make Bruce automatically agree. In fact, before Jason had went to break Mirror Master out it had been made clear that Thomas wasn't coming on this adventure. Yet there he was, standing before them with his cowl on and gun drawn.

"You sure we can trust him?" Thomas growled.

"What? Him?" Jason pointed to Mirror Master and shrugging, "No idea. But, he's smart not to cross the Red Hood so, I think he'll at least get us to the other dimension before ditching us."

"In my world Mirror Master is dying in his mirror dimension."

Mirror Master laughed a bit unhinged, "Oh joy, there's two of them."

Jason handed over the guy's gun, grabbing Sam by the arm before he got too far, "Please don't mess this up. Believe me, there's worse things than me waiting to grab you if this goes wrong."

Mirror Master nodded, taking a shaky breath as Jason led him to the ripped up bed.

It was a waiting game now. They had laid the bread crumbs, it was up to the demon to follow them now.

They had made a point of spray painting walls outside of churches or in cemeteries to tell the demon to meet them at the old church. For three nights now Bruce had let Jason fly through the streets, heavily supervised, in the hopes the demon would show his face and they could trap him. They had even went so far as to visit the nuns in Colin's orphanage, telling them to inform every parish they could that someone called Richard was needed five nights from then in the old church. He'd know the one. 

Jason hoped anyway.

Tim came up with a pack of cards as midnight passed. While Bruce and Thomas preferred to do that whole silent guardian thing, the rest of them were bored enough to agree to a poker match. Sam was quite good, which made Jason wonder if he, like the criminals of Gotham, had an annual poker night the Central folk attended. If not then the guy was playing with someone good since he hadn't lost a game yet. It was getting to the point that Tim was starting to show his sore loser side. Poker was a game of reading people after all, and the kid prided himself on being able to do just that. Jason himself wasn't that bothered, he had more important things to worry about. 

One came. Then two. Three dawned rather surprisingly fast after that, poker being exchanged for snap, Dick grinning from ear to ear as his fast reflexes were being put to good use. Jason wished, not for the first time seeing Dick here, that he wasn't wearing his Nightwing gear. It was too big on him for one, since Dick had lost a lot of muscle being on bed rest for months. The other fact was that Dick shouldn't have to be here at all. It wasn't fair on him, especially after what had happened. Yet Dick had made it clear he wasn't about to be left behind, and since they really did need him in case a merge should happen, here he was.

Four came and still no demon. But around five, as morning dawned and they were going to start calling sleep shifts, something happened. Jason was on his feet as something slammed against the mirror. Bruce had brought one special from the manor to hang where the old one would have been in the priests quarters, and it looked to be a good idea as it came again, a hand print being left behind in the fog.

It came a third time then no more. 

"The demon?" Jason murmured.

"I don't think so," Bruce said, close enough to put himself between Jason and the mirror. 

"It sounds like knocking," Sam said, almost cowering behind Bruce's cape. "You know, one two three, let me in," he explained. "It's something I would do. Really freaks out the Flash."

"Really freaks out a lot of people," Tim noted, jumping as a slam came again.

Then another, then the third. 

"Sam," Jason said, "What do you usually do after you've knocked a few times?"

Mirror Master shrugged, "Depends why I'm there. Why?"

Why? Namely because Jason thought that perhaps it really wasn't the demon inside of that mirror. There was another universe after all, and Jason had already mused about there being another Mirror Master. 

There was nothing for a few minutes, the mirror remaining blank again before something fogged it up, a D writing itself onto the screen. "There's no one there," Jason noted. 

"It's a trick," Sam said, hiding even further behind Bruce. "The mirrors can often be manipulated from within to allow myself to hide while observing what's on the other side. Like a one way kind of thing." He shot a look to Jason, "Just what kind of crap am I being mixed up in here?"

"Worse things than me," Jason reminded him, taking a step forward. "Sam?" He called, watching the C hesitate before continuing. "Can he hear me?" Jason asked.

The Sam on this side made a so, so gesture. "It's not great. I mean, they're mirrors. There's a reason your reflection is silent."

Wonderful. "Sam?" Jason tried again, taking his helmet off so his mouth could be seen. "That you?"

Something, his name, or finally giving up the charade of hiding, had Mirror Master revealing himself. Jason found himself taking a step back at the man reflecting back at him. He didn't look well. All the colour was gone from his face, looking more like he'd spent several days being drained at the morgue than living in mirrors. His eyes were gaunt, his suit hanging off him, he just didn't look well.

The other Mirror Master looked behind him before facing forward again, fogging up the mirror to ask, Which one of you is Dick?

"Why?" Jason asked.

Mirror Master pointed behind him, the motion clear, someone on the other side wanted him. 

"He's not here," Jason carefully said, hoping this Mirror Master hadn't seen Dick before.

He hadn't, scowling once before disappearing completely from sight.

They waited a few moments before retreating back to their previous positions, Tim shuffling the deck again to keep his hands busy. When they were sure Mirror Master had gone Tim asked, "Should we go through?"

"No," Bruce said.

"I mean, we're meant to go through with Dick," Jason tacked on, "It would kind of defeat the purpose if we just went through for the hell of it."

Tim gave a shaky nod before dealing out another hand. 

They were there for three whole days. Alfred drove up after he'd dropped Damian off at school to bring them food, Dick going to fetch it and give a daily report as Jason tried to pry any communicative device from Sam's hands as he tried to get away. Apparently prison was better than going anywhere near that other Mirror Master. 

Jason was starting to grow uncomfortable in his suit around the second day, the others too, but since Jason was the only one that Sam actually knew the identity of he was the only one able to strip off his mask and heavier parts of armour. 

Every night, and the main reason for why Sam wanted to scurry back to Central, was because the other Mirror Master kept coming back. He looked for Dick each time, looking more and more haggard the longer Dick didn't show up. It got to the point where he was actually screaming on the other side of the mirror, all Jason could hear was a faint noise, as Mirror Master begged them to go get Dick. That was the night they saw a glimpse of a wound just that little lower than the mirror. They didn't know if it was from someone on the other side, or if he'd already had it. Whatever it was, it had Sam spooked and wrestling with Jason for a phone so he could call the Flash to come get him.

The third night, after Sam had made Jason promise that if nothing happened this night he could go back to prison and they would use the other Mirror Master, the demon finally showed his face. He was barely dressed, as usual, and preferring to stay in the doorway than venture further into the room.

"You're late," Jason told him, glad to note his body hadn't frozen up this time. It was shaking quite terribly however.

Mirror Master flicked his eyes at the demon, "You've been waiting for your brother all this time?" He hissed. "Couldn't you have just dragged him from that castle you call a home?"

"Shut up," Jason snapped, letting himself be covered as Bruce and Thomas advanced forward.

"You don't have any traps set," The demon noted, not afraid at all of the Batmen. "Quite stupid of you."

"We thought it would make it harder to send you home if we trapped you here," Thomas said. 

Dick narrowed his eyes, "You're lying." He cocked his head around the two Batmen until he caught Sam, "If he can't send me home, what chance do you have?"

The room turned dangerous after that, Jason knowing it would only take the wrong word and Richard would be on them, doing who knew what. He backed himself to the window, knowing he could make the jump or at least cast his grapple out to the next building. Dick had the same idea as he was almost flat against him, both of them subtly trying to work the window. If all else failed they always had the gap in the wall.

"Why can't he send you home?" Thomas asked. 

Dick straightened back up, disappearing around the dark cloaks, but his voice was still audible, that smooth tone seeming careless as he said, "Something about limited power. I don't know, I couldn't hear him."

"When was this?" Thomas pressed, Jason surprised Bruce wasn't butting in. But then, Jason supposed Bruce was just stopping himself from doing something unforgivable to the thing that had hurt his family.

"Sometime before that priest died."

Before Thomas had come then. Bruce had the same thought as he said, "The world has changed since then. It's more stable. Perhaps you tried at a time where the bridge was too weak." And Jason seriously wanted to applaud Bruce for his steady tone. Maybe he should really start thinking about getting some anger tips from Bruce. At least for the whole vigilante thing. It would surely go over better if he could perfect that emotionless monotone that freaked out the criminals of Gotham.

There was a snort, the tip of Richard's foot flicking out as he no doubt slouched in his doorway, "Say I believe you. Why exactly do you want to help me?"

"Because it gets you away from here," Dick snapped. "And as far as I'm concerned that's the best reason there is to help anyone."

Something must have happened, because the next thing Jason knew Bruce was throwing a punch the demon's way, and finding himself wrapped in shadows as a result. Thomas had his gun drawn, ready to shoot just as Jason flung himself onto the man's back. "You'll shoot Bruce you idiot." He knocked the guy off course for good measure, trusting Dick to keep Sam from jumping ship as he yelled, "Stop!" At the black mass eating, and he meant eating, Bruce. "For God's sake we're trying to get you home. If you kill him I'll make sure I smash this and every mirror, every chance you have of getting back."

The black mass cleared leaving Bruce on the floor, Dick sitting astride and as prim as he ever was. The same couldn't be said for Bruce. There were bits of skin missing, and while horrible to look at most of them were shallow, the demon just playing around really. "Jason," The demon purred, "I didn't see you there. How are you? You were looking a bit pale last we met."

"Off him," Thomas growled between Jason's chokehold, his gun reorienting itself. "Now."

"Of course," The demon nodded, getting up easily like he hadn't just been mauling Bruce. "Wouldn't want to be responsible for another of your children's death now would I?"

The safety came off, Jason digging his heels in to warn Thomas not to do something stupid. "Could you stop?" Jason asked, since it seemed the only one he actually had a civil conversation with was Jason apparently. "It's been three days and I don't want to make it four. Now either agree or piss off because I can't deal with anymore of this."

Richard dropped the smile, kicking Bruce none too gently as he crept that bit closer to Thomas, "You swear Jason, just you, that you're going to take me home and fine, I'll come with you."

"I swear."

The demon nodded, Jason hopping down off Thomas. For a few moments no one moved, Jason just waiting for the demon to do something. Dick was the first one to get out of his stasis, scurrying from his seat at the window to check on Bruce. As soon as the okay was given and the superficial wounds dressed they started on actually getting to the other dimension.

Sam was just, well, he'd taken root in a corner and was trying as hard as possible to remain there when Jason fetched him. It took the demon hauling him up for Sam to screech he'd help and take cover behind the batmen once more. They sent Tim off after they'd gotten Mirror Master's gun from him, Jason making sure the kid got on his bike and the demon didn't move an inch before coercing Sam over to the mirror.

"We just need to get to the other dimension. After that, it'll be a nice little trip around an alternate Gotham and back home in time for shower time in prison. Sound good?" Jason soothed, getting more than one dark look for that sentence.

But it did the trick, as if the idea of this happening as fast as possible spurred him on. 

In moments the mirror in front of them had been, enchanted Jason guessed, and Mirror Master climbed his way up and through. Jason went next, knowing the demon wouldn't go through until he did, which he did thank God. The others came through rather quickly after that, Bruce still a bit phased after his mauling. But sure enough they were all through and all following Sam as he started on the labyrinth that would lead to the other world.

Jason didn't know how it worked, and actually gave Sam some credit for knowing the way as all he saw were reflections of himself no matter how long they walked. Sam twisted and turned ahead of them with ease, checking his gun every so often before starting up again until they came to one specific reflection. 

"This is it," Sam said, sighing shakily as he raised his gun and the reflection changed to that of some kind of mirror prison. 

Jason rushed Sam through before he could even think of running, the two of them the first to be greeted to the gun waiting for them that the other Mirror Master was holding. "We have Dick," Jason said quickly, the gun in front of him shaking slightly before lowering. Jason nodded back to where the demon was stepping through, taking a long look around before focusing on the reflection that took up the majority of Mirror Master's prison.

"You should have sent him through alone," the other Mirror Master muttered, holding his side pointedly as he sat back against one of the mirrors in his prison. "He's waiting on the other side," he said louder to the demon.

"Then let me through," Richard ordered, looking ready to smash something if it didn't happen fast.

Jason nudged their Sam up front, leaving the other to his wounds. As soon as he blasted the mirror, letting the demon out, Jason took his gun from him, handing it over to Nightwing for good measure. "But-"

"We're not even close to done," Jason said, following the demon onto the other side.

He expected, something, to be waiting on the other side. Perhaps holy Father Todd holding a welcome home banner and a fresh prostitute for Richard to suck the life out of. Maybe even Father Todd laid out on a bed himself. Definitely not the two rolling masses of shadows that seemed to be warring in the room beyond. Jason had to duck for cover as soon as he stepped out, the others doing the same until they could crawl their way to the door. 

"What the hell was that?" Jason snapped as the door closed on the battle beyond.

"Don't know but we should move," Thomas said, grabbing Bruce to help him along.

They weren't in the church like Jason thought they would be. Instead, they seemed to be at some kind of college. The room beyond had been a dorm, and out here, the common room that wasn't so common. Everyone that had been here was dead. Girl's, guys, whatever that thing was, Jason thought it was a dog, were just laying there, looking like they were sleeping. Or had recently drank some bad cool aid. Whatever it was, Jason knew they were dead, and as they continued through the halls and stairs he started to wonder if it was even the demon's doing or if something bad had just happened to this place.

Bruce ordered breathers on everyone anyway, especially after Thomas mentioned the Amazons and Atlanteans having access to magic and chemical weapons. Jason fished out a spare, intending to give it to Sam, only to not see him.

"Where's Mirror Master?"

The other's looked around like they weren't detectives until Dick helpfully supplied, "He jumped back into the mirror as soon as you let go of him. I think he's waiting it out with his double until we come back."

"Damn it," Jason snapped, knowing that while they at least had access to one gun, they had no Mirror Master now to guide them back. If worse came to worse they would have to send a message somehow to the JL. Maybe Barry and his treadmill could help.

He did one last head count as Thomas took the door just in case, cursing Sam to hell and back as they stepped out into wide Gotham.


	6. Chapter 6

Thomas took them straight to the manor, hot wiring a car one of the college students wouldn't be needing anymore to make the journey that much quicker. 

Jason marvelled at the scenery as they passed, it was so familiar and yet different at the same time. Much like most alternate universes he'd been to. Wayne Casino was the shiniest thing around, and, according to Thomas, it was a good thing that it was still standing since it meant the Atlantean Amazon war hadn't reached Gotham yet. There were no people on the streets, which, wasn't that uncommon in Gotham. But even the houses the people lived in were looking worse for wear. Even the manors they passed as they came to the wealthier districts looked like they could do with a good remodelling. Looks like Wally really had been right when he said this Gotham was grungier. 

Wayne manor loomed as it usually did when they drew near, Jason sparing a glance out his side to see the Drake residence. He wondered if Tim was still in there. The demon had said his parents were dead, but he didn't say if Tim was. A kid like that, especially with money, he wouldn't be in prison long. Especially if this Gotham was as corrupt as theirs. 

It was a sorry sight to see what Wayne manor would look like without Alfred attending it. The gates, while standing, didn't look too hard to break into. But then, with a jungle of overgrown plants and a house that looked like it had nothing but corpses inside of it, what exactly did anyone have to steal?

Thomas let them out, telling them to get Bruce down to the kitchen for some clean bandages as he ditched the car. Jason didn't hang around to wait for him, grabbing one arm while Dick took the other as they ditched their breathers and stumbled down the familiar route to the kitchen.

"Think Thomas would mind if I did a little shopping?" Jason asked, the cupboard before him, which he thought might have first aid stuff in, was almost full to the brim with mould and things he thought might have once been food. "If we're going to be here a couple of days I don't want to be living off take away the whole time."

Dick snorted, taking the flimsy things they'd wrapped Bruce in away from his bloody gashes. "A few months on Alfred's cooking and you're such a snob."

"I'll have you know I barely got take away when I was living on my own dickface. You think a body like this is built on empty calories?" He did a little pose as he knocked the cupboard shut with his hip, opening the other to further his search for medical supplies.

He found them eventually hidden behind the bread bin. While a whole host of questions came to mind about just why they were there of all places Jason had more important things to focus on. So he stuffed them away and helped Dick clean out the rough looking bite marks that keeping Bruce dangerously slumped over.

"He got into the armour," Dick noted, peeling Bruce's mask down until he could get a good look into the gap between the suit. 

"'Course he did." Jason set about taking Bruce's boots off, knowing for a fact there was something on his legs that had made him stumble so much. 

"I hate this," Dick said. "We should have went straight to the church. As soon as whatever back there has let the demon go it's going to go straight to Father Todd."

"Yeah," Jason agreed. He'd known since they started towards the high end of Gotham that they were leaving his alter ego vulnerable. But, in the long run, this was for the best. "We didn't come here to protect him though. We came here to subdue the demon. Which means, we need to use that hopefully fancy computer Thomas has, get some info and then go find this thing." Hopefully Father Todd would be okay until then. Out loud Jason tried, "It's not like he's killed other me yet. There's gotta be a reason."

"Yeah," Dick agreed, his false confidence doing nothing to help Jason's mood.

They patched Bruce up and forced down some antibiotics that would starve off any kind of infection. The whole time both Jason and Dick called Bruce a hypocrite as he turned out to be harder than Jason to medicate. They managed it eventually however, and carried him up worn, creaky stairs to an empty bedroom to rest.

There, asleep, comfortable and hopefully healing, Jason and Dick left him in favour of exploring. They were planning on going straight to the cave. They were still planning on going. It was just, new world, same manor, they were curious. So, if they so happened to bypass the study and start snooping it was purely by accident. 

The rooms they found were just as decrepit as Jason remembered from his little blips. There was dusk caked into every fibre. So much so that Jason spotted their boot prints as they walked through the old carpets. The bedrooms reminded Jason a bit of his old home, maybe even some of his own apartments before he'd got the bleach in. Everything was old, sure, but it was old in the other world too. The difference was that it hadn't been maintained. Alfred once told him that anything could keep for a long time so long as it was looked after properly. The beds back home were looked over every couple of years for breaks or oiling on the hinges. The doors too. The chandelier, while slightly new since Dick had broke the first one when he was an only child in the manor, was still older than both of them combined. Yet even that shone in the foyer as they walked in.

Here it was as if the manor, like Thomas, had just gave up. It was forcefully ageing at a rate it didn't have to from abandonment and disuse. It was sad, and even Dick thought so as he stared into what had been his room, empty without all the posters and clutter Dick needed to live.

"Boys?" Came up.

"Up here," Dick called down, nudging Jason back where they had come from. "Hopefully the cave looks better."

Thomas' hands were shaking when they met up with him. Jason would have bet anything that he was worried that none of the past few weeks had happened. As an alcoholic and Batman on top of that, he was probably partial to a few hallucinations every now and then. Knowing how terrifying they could be, Jason hit the man good naturedly on his armour and told Thomas to lead the way to the cave. 

Surprisingly, Thomas didn't have much on demons in his computer. While he was good at his job he wasn't as thorough as Bruce. Well, perhaps obsessive was a better word. Thomas, from the looks of things, wasn't as keen a detective as his son. He preferred CCTV and the GCPD database along with patrol to weed out his perpetrators. It made Jason even wonder if there were things like rogues in this Gotham. In the old one, yes, they had them, mostly because Bruce let them live, but mainly because it was like a game to all participants. The villains tried to be more and more clever each and every time they busted out, and, for the most part, it kind of worked. But they had only gotten that way because they had a worthy adversary. Thomas, with his guns and executions, wouldn't get the same level of criminal they faced. He wasn't as honed to the crazy that ran in the blood of every Gothamite, and as a result, when they went looking, there was virtually nothing about the demon to be found.

"This guy killed your kid and you don't have a fifteen inch file on him?" Dick asked, tired himself of looking over the paper files- paper- that might have a lead on the demon.

"Bruce was gone," Thomas said, Jason not missing that 'was'. "As far as I knew it was that man in the alley. The demon... I never thought he could have quickened it until I saw for myself Martha wasn't crazy."

Jason stopped clicking, sharing a glance at Dick before asking, "Martha's alive?"

Thomas nodded, a simple, "Arkham," all they got out of him.

Jason guessed that was answer enough.

They were there for hours making sure they had missed nothing before regrouping in the kitchen to scavenge there, only this time for food. Jason made a few suggestions about running into town, maybe Thomas could get his beloved grandchildren something nice and sweet to eat as reward for bringing him home. Hint, hint. Mostly he just looked for something he could chew on to alleviate the ache in his stomach. It wasn't too bad. Jason had definitely experienced worse. But the point was that someone who had experienced worse never wanted to get back to that stage if they could help it. Hence the uncooked pasta he munched on while the rest of it stewed in the pan.

"Okay," Dick sighed, his head resting on the cabinet behind him, "We need a game plan."

Two days they had agreed on before Tim would follow a contingency and come through to this world. Which meant two days without the league telling them they were bad children who should have let the grown ups handle things. It wasn't a lot of time, but any longer and the league would have been right. This wasn't kids stuff. If they didn't do this right then they would end up in far worse condition than Bruce snoring upstairs.

"I say we try find a witch," Jason suggested. "There has to be someone on this world with magical knowledge. Other me had to have gotten that book from somewhere, and they won't waste time we don't have researching."

Maybe there was an alternate Constantine. Or Zatara was alive, probably grieving, but alive and had power enough to help them defeat a demon. Raven would be a good shot too. But with her mixed blood who knew where she was right now. 

"Maybe we could ask other you," Dick said. "I mean..." Dick thought on it a while, trying to sort out which of the four of them were the least likely to give other Jason a heart attack. Definitely not Jason himself. Too freaky for one, and they would be asking and answering too many questions before anything got done. Dick would have been Jason's first choice had Dick not been a demon in this world and the whole point behind this little adventure. Bruce too was a wildcard if the demon was to be believed. Which left, "Thomas, you're going to have to go ask him."

"I can't," Thomas said.

"You're the only one of us that can," Dick argued.

"I can't," Thomas insisted, his hand shaking even more than usual as he clutched his very non alcoholic water. "If I go there he'll know."

"Bruce?" Jason guessed.

Thomas nodded slowly. "I can't see him. Not after everything I've done. And poor Damian. God that poor kid never should have been born."

Dick made a slightly pained sound but didn't argue. None of them could really dispute that Damian's origins in this world were good. In fact, this was probably the only timeline where Damian had a worse parentage than his normal one. Who knew what his demon blood would drive him to do when he was older. Maybe even now he was tearing priests heads off and ransacking orphanages. 

Poor kid indeed.

Dick snapped out of his slump as his mind focused back on the mission, "Well, there has to be some other way. If we can't ask Jason then there must be someone else. Someone has to have researched this."

Jason agreed but couldn't think who. It wasn't until he swirled the pasta a fourth time, wishing Tim was here so he could start rattling on like he usually did that Jason had a bright idea. "Hey Grandad, Tim's alive in this world, right?"

Thomas winced slightly but said, "Yes. Why?"

"If his family was killed by demons too," Jason started, knowing the demon had said Tim thought he was possessed.

Dick latched on, both of them knowing the kid too well, "Tim has to know something."

He just had to, it was in the kids nature. He looked into things to the point of obsession. Batman. Superman. Metahumans. Cases. Anything that took his fancy he knew the ins and outs of. If something supernatural had taken his parents away he would be finding ways to know that thing inside and out in case it showed up again. 

"I think this is the first time I'm glad Tim exists," Jason mused, avoiding the boot when Dick flung it his way.

Thomas made a weird noise, but voiced no protest as Jason served their mediocre food and suggested they try and get at least a few hours before starting their mission.

A few hours of course, meant three until Bruce woke up, barging into each and every room with a loud slam until he found Jason and Dick. Whatever had possessed him to run the manor in the state he was in left him as he fell slightly against the doorway. "What's happened?" He demanded, which was typical Bruce even if Jason wasn't too happy being ordered around half awake.

He let Dick do most of the catching up, snoozing a few more minutes until Bruce barked at them to follow and started towards Thomas' room.

They ditched their vigilante stuff as soon as Bruce woke his father. Apparently, where Tim was, it was better to go without a cape, which Jason thought didn't really bode well. Happily, however, he was the only one that had a uniform that could blend in with society. All he had to do was lose the hood and the holsters and he looked like the average Joe walking the streets. Not so for the others. 

Dress up time, while fun at first, soon turned a bit morbid as Thomas had to go searching in other parts of the manor when even his own son couldn't fit into his clothes. It was a hard time for both father and son, one Jason wished they had more time for, but unfortunately didn't with the time limit they had set themselves.

So, dressed, eventually, they took one of Thomas' fancy cars, which Jason was so very glad he still had in good condition, and started the drive away from Drake manor where Jason thought they would venture, and into the wider city. 

He started to get a good sense of where they were going the more familiar turns they took. Yet he, like the rest of them apparently, were holding out hope they were wrong until they pulled up to Arkham's gates. Jason supposed he could see why they would put Tim in here. The kid had been raving about demons after all. But he would have been like, what, seventeen, when this happened, sixteen at the very least. Insane he might sound but they should have found him a nicer facility to rehabilitate in. Especially with all the money he had. It was somewhat eyeopening that wasn't the case as Thomas managed to sweet talk his way in, the man making sure Bruce's cap covered his face as they passed security.

They waited for a good half an hour while doctors set up a meeting room. All the while Thomas squirmed in his seat, constantly looking around like he was expecting someone. Jason logged it away as they were called in, Thomas whispering once more that Jason was supposed to play priest as they stepped through.

In all worlds Jason thought there would always be one constant and that was Arkham. No matter where he went, Arkham was still the hell hole it always was. He supposed it was because nothing could actually get worse in here. The room they had set up for Tim was the same ones Jason had been in at home interviewing some rogue or another. No glass panels, no safety net at all in case the prisoner got violent. Just a set of handcuffs and a camera that didn't work on the best of days. 

The walls still had mould growing on them, mostly from all the bodily fluids that were flung its way on a daily basis. He couldn't see any question marks which didn't bode well for Eddie. As for Tim, well, the kid, like the rest of this Gotham, just didn't look good.

Jason's worst nightmare was Arkham. In some world there was probably a him sitting where Tim was now. Only Jason had probably meant to do the things he did to land him in here. Jason wondered if the rest of them felt the same. He knew Bruce did. Quite often when he was younger he'd seen Bruce sitting staring blankly at the computer in front of him, saying things he'd heard his mom say once upon a time. All that hopeless spiel that doctors said meant someone needed monitoring for. The others however, Jason wasn't so sure about. 

Whatever the case, Tim was here now, and the kid, eighteen and looking awful, just awful, didn't look too surprised to see Jason here.

The others hung back, Thomas pulling Bruce's cap further over his face and let Jason do the talking. Not that he knew how. He'd only met Father Todd briefly through their shared connection. Even then things were blurry. How did he even speak?

"You doing good?" Jason tried.

Tim shook the handcuffs, so at least some of his sass still lived. "What do you want? I thought you had enough of me last time."

Jason cleared his throat, knowing better than to fall into that trap. Tim was a smart kid, he knew something was off and was trying to get Jason to prove it for him. Then again, maybe if he did things would go smoother. He was overthinking this. "So, demons," Jason started. "You know about them."

Tim narrowed his eyes, the question that wasn't really a question piquing something in his brain as he sat up a little. "Why are you here?"

"To ask about any books you might have had about demons," He let out. "It's important that I get them. Like really important. And I know you're a bright kid," vague territory, everyone with a phone could see Tim's records and say he was a bright kid. "So if you could, maybe, please tell me that would be great." There, not too strong like he usually was, and just that little bit desperate to show Tim he had all the cards here.

He saw Tim scouring the others in the room. A barked, "Guards!" was all the warning Jason had before the others set into action.

Bruce took the door, Thomas slipping out to buy them a few more minutes as Dick darted forward, slamming his hands on the table to growl, "Listen kid, you think your parents are going to be the last on my list? I can have your throat open in seconds. So why don't you just tell him what he wants to know before I lose my patience and you join your parents down under."

Jason bit his lip. Tim on the other hand just stared Dick down. "Go on then," he challenged. "You think I don't know a demon when I see one?"

"Damn it," Dick swore, shoving Jason along a bit so he could squeeze in. 

"And you wonder why I hate him," Jason mumbled. Tim always had to be difficult. Even here, locked up in a lunatic asylum. "What do you want?" He asked Tim, since the kid had been playing them since they came in.

"You really are from the other world then," Tim marvelled. "I had wondered about the memories."

"Yes, yes," Jason hurried along, "We're from the other world, it's all sunshine and rainbows. Whatever. Look, can you tell us what we want or not?"

"You're not a demon," Tim continued as if he hadn't even heard Jason. "Neither is he I'm betting," he nodded over to Bruce. 

"No," Dick agreed, having much more patience than Jason since he wasn't even clenching his fists. "But there is a demon we need to get rid of. Please Tim. I know I did horrible things to you in this world but in the other I'm... we need those books. Or any kind of research you have."

"Fine," Tim agreed at last. "But I want an attorney. A good one. I have no money in this place and I need to get out, so tell Mr Wayne if he wants my cooperation he's-"

"Fine," Jason snapped. It's not like a lawyer's really going to set Thomas back much. The guy had millions he wasn't using. It's not like he had a house to maintain or grandchildren to fund after all. The most he probably spent was on his vigilante gear and booze. "You got it. Now tell us, because while he may not be dangerous you can bet your ass that I am."

Tim settled back down, both because he could probably read the sincerity in Jason's words and he obviously hadn't expected his terms to be met this quickly. With only a slight glower the kid let out, "My parents had books on demons. I think other you stole a few when he broke Dick out, but the others should still be at home. I don't- I wasn't really part of that. My dad just wanted me to scope things out."

So he didn't know anything. Or, if he did, he hadn't had a chance to obsess over it. But the kid had given them a lead, and for that Jason let him keep all his fingers. He let Dick say his goodbyes for both of them as he let himself out into a hallway streaming with doctors waiting to get their hands back on the kid. 

Thomas, when they got out, wasn't all too pleased to hear he would be funding a lawyer for basically nothing. When Jason brought up the countless funds Thomas had to have just lying around the guy shook his head saying, "That's not it," but since he wouldn't elaborate further Jason was just left focusing on the more important things. Like breaking into Drake manor that was basically a mausoleum at this point.

The shareholders, if they were withholding Tim's funds couldn't do much with the manor. It wasn't actually their money after all, it was Tim's, as was the house and the business. While clauses could be made to give the company away and all its assets should something like jail happen to Tim's father, death was another matter entirely. By inheritance, Tim got everything, and since nothing had happened to his father beforehand to put other aspects such as liquidation or shareholder takeover into action, that meant that Tim still got everything. 

Basically, the house was still Tim's, and after it had served its purpose as a crime scene there was nothing Gotham could do to either sell the house on or strip it bare. Pretty handy Jason thought as he disabled the security.

"You are far too good at that," Dick said, busy himself with picking the locks to every room they could find.

"Whatever, at least I didn't insinuate I was sending Tim to the land down under." He still laughed a little when he thought of it. "For a guy who was possessed you are horrible at impersonating a demon."

"I'm taking that as a compliment," Dick said, handing Jason's gear over when he finished with the alarms.

They had split up now Tim had given them something to work off. Suited up once more, Thomas and Bruce went to stake out Father Todd's place while Dick and Jason took Tim's. Jason kind of hoped they weren't spooking the poor priest too much. Thomas, Jason trusted, but Bruce was a helicopter parent to any orphan he passed on the street. With a guy who looked like Jason living out of his control, Jason feared what Bruce might do. Like anonymously order him pizza.

The layout of the Drake manor was much the same as Jason remembered it. There were long hallways and many rooms, most of them filled to the brim with rich people crap. The kind of stuff people pretended looked good in their houses but really were questionable at best. Who, after all, needed a seven foot statue of themselves? Jack Drake apparently.

Some things were different. Like Janet living until Tim was a teenager. Her influence on the house made it so Jason had to check three more rooms before he found something that looked like a library. Even then it was a book full of magazines.

He sighed, "Any luck?"

"None," Dick said. 

Wonderful.

They scoured more rooms, Jason flicking through everything readable in sight until Dick called for him on the second floor. He was in Tim's room, a wise place for them to have started now Jason thought about it. Already he had flicked through the books on Tim's shelf, turning now to the safe Dick so helpfully knew about hidden under a floorboard in Tim's room.

The password was still the same, thank God. As was the second set of security measures Tim implemented in case someone forced the password out of him. Jason grabbed the half Dick gave him, flicking through three photo's before backtracking.

"Am I seeing this right?" He couldn't be too sure. 

Dick made a sort of high whine, a slow, "Well," escaping his throat as they pooled their resources together. 

It wasn't anything demon related. At least, not what they were looking for demon related. Instead, Jason was looking at a whole lot of photos of himself. Other him. It was basically proving that Tim had a serious problem with stalking in any world he lived in. 

Most of them were pretty harmless, depending on the point of view. They were of Jason puttering about his church, sometimes in his robes, which Jason saw Dick slip into some pouch on his suit for later. There was Jason walking the streets, getting groceries. Jason and... Damian? Huh. Well, the kid didn't look like he was mauling Jason so he put that to the side as he delved further into this weird obsession Tim had with him.

Around the fifteenth photo something a little racy popped up, Jason towelling his hair anyway, but the angle alone suggested that Tim was somewhere he shouldn't have been. It was swallowed amongst more presentable, domestic photos, not thought of again until Jason came across another one. Then another. There was one with Jason in his shower, a photo Tim couldn't have gotten unless he was in Jason's apartment. 

"This is weird right, I'm not just being paranoid. Like, Tim doesn't have this level of creepy photos in our world does he?" If so, Jason would have to hunt Tim down. If there was one thing Jason hated it was his photo took without his permission. Especially this level of photo. He'd had enough of that as a child, he wasn't going to stand more out in the world if he could help it. 

"I don't think so," Dick mumbled. He went back to the safe, coming back with even more photos. "It's not just you if it's any consolation."

There were others. Some of Dick, usually with Jason. But the rest of them were of other people. Boys and girls around Jason's age, maybe younger and just as invasive as Jason's own photo's. The ones with the demon Jason kept, knowing he would find something in them interesting later. For now, he put the others back in the safe, let Dick do his share of rifling through the ones he still had and started looking again for those books.

They tried the Drake's bedroom next. It was pristine, which either said a cleaner had been in, or the Drakes hadn't went to bed before they got murdered. Jason, knowing Tim had to get his sneakiness from somewhere, started on places Janet or Jack would hide their secrets. They didn't have any books in here, which spoke for them as people. They did have a whole host of other interesting things however. Sex toys Jason kicked away as soon as he discovered them. A second phone that belonged to Janet with sexts on them to other men Jack definitely knew about if she was willing to just leave it lying around. Cigarettes, alcohol, and behind a door Jason managed to pry open with a finger, the jackpot Jason had been looking for.

"Oh Dickie," Jason called, starting in on the books that were just waiting to be snatched.

He went off to find a bag, Dick trotting in just as he found an old rucksack. A low whistle was Dick's observation, the two of them starting to pule the books one by one into the bag, fetching another one when needed. 

Just as they reached the last few Jason just had to take a look at the rest of the cupboards inhabitants. There was rope, handcuffs, a knife that had rust in places. There was a gun that Jason didn't really think needed hiding in a place like Gotham. A sketchy concoction of drugs that would knock anyone out and, right at the bottom a briefcase that never boded well for anyone with a list like that.

"Wanna look inside?" Jason teased, waving the case around. It was light, and since it didn't clink too loudly there weren't any body parts inside.

"I don't know," Dick said, taking the case. "We have a time limit Jay. Also we could see something we don't want to."

"True," Jason agreed.

"But I mean," Dick said, dropping the case pointedly on its lock, "If it just so happened to open on its own and we saw..."

"Also true. It wouldn't be our fault that we so happened to look. It's not like we spent the time prying it open." He did the same, shooting the lock for good measure until the contents were spilling out onto the floor.

Dick made another whine, twisting his face away as he said, "Guess the demon was right about something then."

"Yeah." Jason had only snatched a quick look as he stuffed the last book in the pack. There were more photos inside. Some of them had to be Tim's, the angles alone said it was an experienced photographer. But the others, they had to be Jacks. Either his or Janet was broadening her horizons away from distinguished men with money. 

They were the kids from Tim's room, the ones Tim definitely broke laws to get. Nudes galore that had some questionable stains on them. Most of them, however, were on the ones Jason couldn't even stomach himself to look at. They kids had definitely suffered, Jack most likely snapping them before he left.

"Is it bad I'm happy he's dead in this world?" Jason asked as they left.

"Probably shouldn't say it out loud," Dick said. "Especially to Bruce. But, I kind of am too. That was just, wrong, on so many levels."

But at least they had something to work on. The question was, as they ventured back to Wayne manor, whether they would find what they wanted before their Tim came with the cavalry.


	7. Chapter 7

Jason wanted to slap Dick after the fourth hour they sat there researching. Jason was all for sitting there and reading, it's what he did in his leisure time anyway. What he didn't like was the fact that after hour two Dick's mind started to need extra stimulation. He was never just a kid that could sit still, Jason had seen his old textbooks and knew for a fact while Dick got good grades his teachers had some concerns over his behaviour in class. He wasn't unruly, just distracted.

He would doodle amongst his notes, daydream on occasion, Jason had even uncovered a report card that said at one point Dick had started a round of Britney's 'Oops I did it again' while they were trying to locate Germany on a world map. 

Needless to say, without breaks, Dick was proving just how frustrating a student he could be as he started on another verse of 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain' under his breath. Jason was ready to kill him as the round after that started up. 

He didn't, instead, he carefully set his book aside, took a deep breath and started to the kitchen for some comfort food. If he so happened to kick a bit of debris too hard along the way that was only for himself and the manor to know.

Bruce and Thomas were out later than Jason expected them to be. When they came back it didn't look like they had good news. Still, Bruce held that close to his chest as he started on what Jason and Dick had uncovered from the Drake house. 

"You mean aside from the sex dungeon I'm sure Jack has somewhere?" Jason asked. "Quite a lot. Turns out the Drakes have quite a lot on demons. Don't know why unless they were taunting Richard before he killed them all." Then again, they were rich people and rich people liked occult stuff. Case in point Bruce who actually was in two cults Jason knew about. One of them he was sure Bruce had started. "Regardless, we have like a few things we're pretty sure can bind a demon to one point."

Dick showed Bruce just where they had found these things, the pen and paper being brought out as Bruce made extra copies he wouldn't have to root around in books for. "I say, we dig a hole, lay the trap, lure the demon in and just leave him there for the rest of eternity."

"A bit dark," Jason said.

"It's not like we can kill it," Dick snapped, "Besides, this way we know where he is and that no one is going to be unearthing him in our lifetime."

Jason held his hands up, "I wasn't saying anything against it. I was just surprised you were the one to suggest it."

"We're not digging a hole," Bruce negated, jotting the next set of symbols down. Yet Jason didn't hear Bruce say no to just leaving the demon somewhere he wouldn't be found for the rest of their lifetime.

There was nothing but the sound of pen on paper for a while as Bruce compiled notes upon notes of symbols and potions they could use to ward off or trap a demon. Jason caught Dick's eye, the both of them growing more antsy the longer no one spoke. Thankfully Dick reached his breaking point before Jason, posing a "Well?" out into the open.

"Well what?" Bruce asked.

"Well how was other Jason? Does he wear a robe? If he bald? Do priests even go bald anymore?" Dick rushed, his excitement to hear about Father Todd outweighing the whole reason Bruce and Thomas had went to find the priest in the first place. 

"You're thinking of monks," Bruce said, still not revealing more. Jason was starting to get the feeling he was doing it more for fun now than to be mysterious.

Something his father didn't know the concept of or had forgotten long ago as he ruined Bruce's silence on the matter to say, "He wasn't there."

"Pardon?" Jason asked.

"Jason, he wasn't in his church." Thomas hid his hands further in his cape, Jason seeing the material shake the longer the hours went on with still no drink and nothing else to distract Thomas' fixating brain. "I think I remember some of the nuns mentioning him going away."

"Prison?" Jason latched onto, "New church? Going away has a lot of connotations."

Bruce took pity on them, "Central City. But, when we checked we couldn't find any word of Jason reaching Central. They have barriers set up now because of the war, people have to show their ID if they want entry."

This wasn't sounding too good. 

Just to prove Jason right Thomas said, "There's more. We went back to the church to see if we could find any mention of where else he might have went and found his things still in the wardrobe."

"The car was still there too, the one he loaned out a few weeks ago."

So Father Todd was missing. "This explains the blood then." He had been wondering why his own name was written in his own blood. Jason hadn't done it himself, that he knew of, which meant it was the other worlds doing. Either, Mirror Master had done it, or someone brought along with Mirror Master. No matter what it meant that Father Todd was probably being hurt somewhere. The question of why remaining to be seen. "So," Jason posed, "Are we going to try and find other me or are we just going to do what we came to?"

There was a heavy silence, all of them knowing how important this work was, and, if they did have more time, perhaps they would dedicate some of it to finding the other Jason. However, as Dick rightly said, "I think we should leave him."

"He could be alive," Bruce muttered, none of them too pleased about this, but Bruce especially since, no matter what Jason supposed Bruce hated the idea of there being a guy out there that looked like his kid in some kind of danger. "It's wrong to leave him."

"Yeah," Dick agreed. "But Richard will be looking for Jason as soon as he finishes with whatever attacked him. Either way, I don't think we're going to be able to save him. The best we can do is focus on stopping the demon from coming back into our world."

They didn't like it. None of them. But Dick was right. Richard would take care of Father Todd if he was still alive, so stopping Richard after that was what they needed to turn their attentions to. Which they did. 

With only a moment longer to mourn the poor priest they got back to work, Jason to his reading and Bruce to figuring out how they were to execute their plan. If they even had the beginning of one right now.

It was a pretty tame day, one made better by Thomas letting them splash out for pizza when he refused to let Jason to his grocery shopping. "Why?" Jason had asked.

To which Thomas had a pretty good answer all things considered. "Trust me kid, if your counterpart is alive he won't be thanking you for having his face plastered over the tabloids again."

"I can take back roads," Since, yes, seeing a priest enter Thomas Wayne's house would look suspicious, and Jason wasn't even going to pretend there wasn't some kind of paparazzi probably lurking around this place. This Gotham had to be just as desperate as the last for any kind of gossip. Knowing this, they had been extremely careful going to and from Wayne Manor.

Thomas Wayne just shook his head again despite the fact they hadn't been caught yet. With some rifling of his own he shoved a pizza flyer in Jason's hands that effectively shut him up. Especially because this place had went out of business in Jason's Gotham and he'd never recovered since.

With food in his stomach and Dick happily occupied helping Bruce, he was able to read more into his demon books, directing Bruce when they went into the caves just where would be best to start on the whole trap thing.

They couldn't write it in chalk. Nor could they use paint since that too eroded over time. Unless Thomas was going to be hanging around for another hundred years they needed a way to embed these characters into the floor and the walls that wouldn't require repeated coats. 

They eventually faced facts they would need to get out the old chisel and drill when even Bruce's suggestion of long lasting paints had holes in it. The work itself would be tiresome, especially because Jason and Dick didn't really have that good of an artistic streak. Bruce was the one to outline the trap, that alone taking hours as he kept flitting back and forth to lay more and check on his notes that he'd been accurate. Bruce was actually sweating when he handed over a drill to Jason, the others finding anything else they could around Wayne Manor that would serve to carve into concrete, and started tracing carefully around the symbols. 

All it would take was one mistake and this would all be for nought. It was tiring work because of that. Also because they needed to make sure these things wouldn't corrode into each other or out of shape for a good century. They had to space them out, make it thick enough that wear wouldn't bend it over too much, yet still thin enough to actually be the symbol they were carving. 

Bruce called for a break when they were half way done. "We'll finish the rest in shifts. If we're exhausted doing this we're going to have no hope actually luring the demon in when the time comes."

"Jay and I will take first shift," Dick said, all of them seeing the traces of red that had bled through the suit's thin layer. Those bites would need cleaning again, and there was no one better equipped to deal with that than an actual doctor.

Surprisingly, Bruce didn't object or even begin to argue why he should be last to leave the carving. It showed he was more battered than he was letting on. Jason told Dick so when both he and Thomas were out of sight.

"He's been working himself to the bone for this Jay," Dick said. "He's just exhausted more than anything. I don't think he's slept more than an hour except when we brought him here."

It was true, Jason didn't think he'd actually seen Bruce power nap whilst they had been in the church. "His devotion to this project is touching."

They went back to work. Tiredness had well and truly set in. His arms were heavy, aching from dragging the drill along the rough stone of the cave. His mind had long since grown tired of staring at the same patch of chalked floor and was constantly trying to wander where it shouldn't. His double kept coming to mind. Jason hadn't been inside of his head long enough to wonder who might have taken him but he was sure, as a priest, he probably didn't have that many enemies. Who made bad with a priest after all? It was like asking to be sent to hell.

"Here." Jason whipped around to see Bruce crouching next to him.

"Jesus!" He clicked the drill off, "I almost had a heart attack. Make some noise B."

Bruce rolled his eyes, reaching out for the drill, "Let me take that, you go get some sleep. You too Dick, I can handle things on my own for a while."

"It's barely been half an hour," Dick argued, yet he flexed his hands out anyway. "You can't have had a nap in that time."

Bruce didn't deny it, "I can't sleep," He said. "Being here, the sooner this is done the better."

"Then go grab your own chisel," Jason kept his drill out of reach. "I'm not leaving you alone down here." He would stay until Thomas came down. At least then it would be a fair trade. 

Bruce didn't look happy with that, but went to go fetch the chisel he'd left anyway and set to work. 

There was something different about this new lease of life Bruce had developed all of a sudden. From under his lashes he could see Dick sneaking glances Bruce's way too. Jason couldn't quite put his finger on it, and eventually put it down to some kind of drug Thomas probably had in his possession. Bruce, while immune to most strains of drugs these days, was still whacky when he found one that actually did something for him. The last time Alfred found an anaesthetic strong enough to put Bruce under for a dislocated kneecap, the old man had been raving about Titus doing the hula for an hour. 

Still Jason kept an eye on him, and so caught the look back Bruce sent, like he was checking the staircase for something. Ghosts Jason figured. That or Thomas since he went right back to work when he was done. 

A bang from upstairs finally drove Jason from his scrutiny. He shared a look with Dick, both of them debating whether it was serious enough to warrant investigating when another bang came followed by a shriek.

Well, Jason didn't know how it went in this world, but in his, Batman didn't shriek, and when he did, something bad was going down. So Jason had no qualms about setting his drill down and fighting Dick for the door as they went to see what had Thomas in such a state.

He was expecting a lot of things. A zombie apocalypse, maybe an outbreak of plague. Hell, even just a murder. What he hadn't expected was to see Bruce help Thomas pin down a very alive and very angry little demon.

"And there was me hoping we wouldn't actually meet Damian," Jason muttered.

At the sound of his voice Damian twisted almost inhumanly in his for bearer's arms. "Priest!" he spat, "Tell them to unhand me."

"Huh," Dick said. "Who would have thought Damian was politer in this world."

Jason wanted to argue but, yeah, that was a pretty polite reaction to the kid who hissed curse words at Jason the first time they met. Sure, Jason had shot the kid not long after, but still, their introduction was much more creative than this one. "Can't you just magic your way out of there?" He asked.

Damian let out a little hiss, writhing one last time before glaring silently at those who held him. 

"Wait," Dick said, looking decisively from Bruce to Damian. He grabbed Jason's arm as soon as something computed, dragging Jason behind Dick. "We just left you down in the cave."

Still working last Jason remembered, and therefore too slow to have gotten here before them and grabbed Damian. Jason kind of appreciated the human shield as he remembered the little tid bit about who else was a demon in this world. Father Todd had called Bruce Dick's master. Somehow Jason didn't think he would be as lenient with Jason as his protege was.

Bruce stared for a moment before yanking his collar down. The bandage was there for them all to see, which meant... which meant they'd just left a demon with the trap they were making. Thomas was the first one to act, throwing Damian to Bruce as he grabbed something out of his desk and ran into the cave. Jason was happy enough to stay above ground while Thomas worked, watching Damian sniff curiously at this new image of his father that held him.

Damian looked almost insulted when he realised Bruce was human, even more when he looked over with another little sniff and levelled a glare at Dick. "You're not Richard."

"Er, no," Dick said slowly, backing Jason up a bit more. He stopped when he thought Jason sufficiently shielded, squaring his shoulders to ask "Say Damian, what happened to the priest?"

"The one you're guarding?" Damian asked.

"No. Yeah," Dick corrected. "Jason. He asked you to look after him right? Richard. He told you to stay close. So why are you back with your father?"

"What?" Jason hissed.

"Damian lived with him," Dick hissed back. "The other me used him as a lure to get you to let me in the church. It kind of got away with him after that."

Damian watched them, still pouting as he looked back up to the Bruce holding him. "I remember you," He said matter of factly.

"Do you?" Bruce asked.

Damian nodded. "I remember the other me's memories. He killed a lot of people."

"Yes," Bruce said slowly, seeming at a loss as to how to deal with this kid that looked so much like his son and was just, not. He actually sounded like a child for one. "But he doesn't anymore."

"I know," Damian said. "He's boring now. I wish I could kill people like he did."

"What?" Jason asked, "Daddy doesn't let you?"

He got an elbow from Dick just as Damian huffed right at him, Jason betting anything he could get out of that hold if he really wanted to. It made him wonder, again, why Damian hadn't. Why there was another Bruce here as well. Damian was stalling but for what? And Jason was beginning to think it wasn't the best idea to let Thomas go down to the cave alone. Through his fear, he'd kind of forgotten that while Bruce here looked like his son, the one down in the cave actually was.

"Damian," Dick called. "What happened?"

"I don't have to tell you." Damian even had the audacity to turn his nose up.

"Well, I don't have to tell you what I know either," Dick said, turning his own nose up.

Damian held the pose for a moment longer before Dick's plan actually worked. The kid was back to scowling, another minute passing before he caved. "Tell me."

"Nope," Dick popped. "You won't tell me what you know, so why should I tell you what I know."

Damian actually stomped his foot, Jason looking him over again. He looked younger here than he was in the other world. Did demons age slower or was Damian born later here? "Tell me!" Damian ordered.

"Nuh uh," Dick crossed his own arms.

Damian was starting to go red, two little green fires replacing his eyes, giving Jason a whole manner of flashbacks he seriously didn't need right now. "Tell me. Now."

"You can order all you like I won't tell. And, if you kill me, you won't know then either." 

Jason had to hand it to Dick, he was a good negotiator. Those twin green fires died in Damian's eyes as he read the truth in Dick's words. With a look behind him like Bruce would actually help him, Damian pouted back at Dick once more and said, "Selina ran away. So the priest went looking and told me to stay inside. He didn't come back so I called for father."

"Selina, Selina?" Jason hissed.

"Don't know. It seems like something she'd do though." The pair of them had seen Selina do her fair share of running away through the years. Usually either towards an abandoned rooftop for some fumbling with Bruce, or to her apartment where the cops wouldn't find her.

Whatever the case they could cross Damian off their list of suspects. 

Speaking of, "Tell me!"

"Fine," Dick sighed. "When I was little I used to have an elephant. She used to let me ride around on her before we went out for shows."

Damian's eyes went back to twin fires once more, "That's it?" He shrieked.

Dick shrugged, "I never said it was something important."

Another shriek left Damian's mouth before, "What colour's an elephant?"

Dick, deeming it safe enough to let Jason near Damian, abandoned his stance in favour of telling the demon all about elephants. Something Jason had to put a stop to when he realised it had been near ten minutes and they still hadn't seen or heard from Thomas. "Guys, he's not here alone remember."

"Right," Bruce said, releasing Damian from his hold, all of them watching the boy brush himself off and nothing more. 

When Damian just took a seat at Thomas' desk Bruce raced down to the cave to see what was going on. Jason considered going again but, well, this Bruce might have more of a problem with Jason than the one he called dad.

So he stayed with Dick who continued to try and draw what an elephant was when Damian needed a visual.

It was a harrowing five minutes, full of Jason hating elephants very existence until Bruce came back up, showing his scars straight away along with his bandages and mumbling, "He's done the rest of it."

"I don't understand," Dick said.

"The trap," Bruce clarified. "He's dug it out. All of it. I checked, there's not a mistake in there."

"He's... helping us?" Jason tried to wrap his head around.

Bruce nodded, opening his mouth yet the other Bruce, stepping his way carefully into the room was the one to say, "He needs to be stopped."


	8. Chapter 8

Demon Bruce was something else. Thomas didn't want him left in the cave, despite the fact he'd helped with the demon trap, and instead took him to an old unused living room. The demon didn't look too upset at the dust and mould, Jason getting the sense he might have been here more than once over the years. The reason for why creeped Jason out when he thought about it. 

He looked younger, much like the Bruce Jason remembered when he was twelve than the forty year old man placing himself as a human barrier between this demon and his children. He was the pique of health too, no scars to be seen or bags around the eyes. He was slimmer, Jason thinking that was what had tipped him off down in the cave. This Bruce didn't have the muscle theirs did, much like Richard. They were demons after all, what use would they have for bulking up to take down criminals?

"You can ask your questions," Demon Bruce said, grabbing Damian before he sat, the little munchkin looking rather put out that he couldn't test the walls sturdiness as he had been doing. "I know you have them."

Thomas was the first to take Bruce up on his offer, a broken, "Where have you been?" slipping around the clinking of bottles. Jason didn't even have to look to know the man was pouring himself a drink. Nor did Jason blame him. It was one thing seeing another dimension Bruce and one that was actually Thomas' son. 

Bruce, demon Bruce, spared a twist of his lips at the noise, looking just like their Bruce when he found Jason looking through the wine cellar. "Around." A vague answer, but one that was also probably true. "Mother needs me more these days, so Damian and I have been staying in Arkham. I hope you don't think it rude that I followed you back here after your visit."

Polite, charming and innocent, an act Jason didn't buy one bit. But he didn't say anything, sometimes it was better to just let them carry on with their charade. Often that led to information being let slip that they themselves might not have wished for. 

"Arkham," Thomas said, a hesitance in his eyes that Jason recognised. He wanted to know more, probably ask just when Bruce had started staying with his mother. If the answer was since he became a demon Jason bet Thomas wasn't going to be sleeping well the next few years.

"So why exactly are you helping us?" Dick cut in, noticing the same as Jason, and, unlike Jason, having the forethought to spare Thomas of pursuing that road just yet. 

"I told you," Bruce said, "Richard needs to be stopped." A sly grin much more befitting on this Bruce's face lit him up. "I don't know if you've noticed but Richard isn't as saintly as he appears."

"Neither are you," Jason pointed out.

The grin fell, an almost pout replacing it, one Damian was mirroring as he squirmed for a better spot on his father's lap. "Unlike Richard I don't lie to people to get what I want."

"You weren't exactly forthcoming with the whole demon thing in the cave," Jason said.

"You didn't exactly ask," Bruce countered. "And before we can talk in circles about the sincerity of that statement how about I tell you that you're not the only one Richard screwed over. Revenge is a feeling anyone can understand, and you, I believe, can admit that there is nothing more truthful than that." He took a breath, Jason still not buying it, but, looking around, he could see the others doing so. Even Bruce, Jason's Bruce, was looking more trusting than he had two seconds ago. Why wouldn't he? Demon Bruce had just admitted to the driving force behind Batman, the motivation that kept Bruce almost killing himself night after night. Bruce understood revenge, and since almost all other Bruce's across the multiverse had the same motivation why should this one be any different. The person behind it was different, but the feeling was universal. Multiversal. 

Jason felt like saying something.

Especially because the next few lines were just textbook manipulation. "If you still don't believe me then just look at me. Look at what he did. I've been inside your head Bruce, you have no idea how good you have it. You have a family that can stand to be around you. Children. You think I want Damian to be like this? He can't even put his hand on a cross without it being seared into his flesh. But your Damian? He's unusual but he's normal. He can go to school, he can live like a normal boy. Mine can't, and I can never give him that life. So trust me when I say I want Richard gone, to stop him from ever turning someone like he did me again, I'm telling the truth."

"I believe you," Bruce said, condemning them to a partnership with a literal demon.

Jason should have been yelling, pulling Bruce aside and asking if he was crazy. Pulling all of them aside. Except, he'd kind of been distracted by the little menace on Bruce's lap. The one that, unnoticed by all but Jason apparently, wasn't exactly happy with his father calling him unusual. 

The rest of them spent some time with demon Bruce, going over specifics for just how they were to lure Richard to the manor. Jason didn't listen. His whole reason for being here had just been incentive for the demon to come back with them. Also because he knew he wouldn't rest easy until he knew for a fact that Richard wasn't going to bother him again. With his first part done and the second on hiatus until Richard was sitting in that trap, Jason went in search of a soft place to put his head down.

Stupid, maybe, to sleep with a demon nearby. But, Jason trusted demon Bruce to be playing nice until Richard came, and therefore knew he could get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Protected sleep too, since demon Bruce would supposedly come grab Richard if whatever plan he had in motion was to come to fruition. 

Still, Jason didn't go too far. He didn't want to completely chance being too far away for the others to grab him. So he moved to the sitting room a few doors down and fell back onto the far too dusty couch. Waving away the specks of dirt he just thanked God Tim had stayed in the other realm, he looked like the kind of kid that had asthma, and Jason knew if he had an attack in this place the blame would somehow wind up on him. Perhaps rightfully deserved if a small attack was all it took to get the kid to snuff it, but still, not something Jason wanted on his list of crimes. So he did thank God and hunkered down onto the springy monstrosity that was once a couch.

Sleep came easily, just as Jason thought. But so did waking. Which he did. Violently when someone slapped his face.

He caught the next one, fear overriding anything else as he registered someone sitting on his chest. He flung them off, the body going fairly easily which was Jason's first clue he wasn't dealing with Richard.

His next, when the fear fog faded, was that his attacker was much shorter than the demon he'd come to know quite intimately. "Damian?" Demon Damian he reminded himself. One that didn't look like he had a weapon but probably wouldn't need one to cause Jason bodily harm. "What the hell?"

"I'm normal," Damian said, completely blind siding Jason.

"You're-" Right, what Bruce was saying before. "Did you seriously wake me up to tell me that."

"Yes," Damian said, not looking sorry in the slightest because he obviously didn't see anything wrong with his actions. "Because I am. Normal. I am. I have a friend. His name is Colin, and other boys my age have friends. I even went to school for a while. The priest let me go with Colin. So I am normal."

Christ. 

As tired as Jason was, and still hyped up on adrenaline, he could hear the small plea in Damian's tone. Poor kid, of course he would take offence at being called unusual. While half demon he was also half human- Jason thought. Even if he wasn't, he probably looked at the others around him, the kids his own age he passed on the streets or wherever demon Bruce took him and wanted to fit in. It was how kids were. No one wanted to be on the outside. Not even Damian in Jason's world. There was a reason Damian took acting classes and it wasn't because he wanted to tour the world one day. He wanted to fit in, and for a kid that was brought up in Talia's world that was hard for him. Jason saw Damian practice small talk in his mirror, even slang he'd probably picked up on the streets. It always softened Jason to the kid when he saw it, mainly because Jason had been the same. He'd wanted to fit in too, only, with Damian, he was able to be a high society brat without even trying, the trouble was appealing to the other side, the social side. The side Jason had always been good at and, like the press conference when he was twelve, he'd never really managed to find a way to play the other side of things.

Still, that didn't answer why Damian was telling Jason this. "I never said you weren't."

Damian nodded, looking a little appeased. "Good." Yet he still didn't look like he was going to leave anytime soon.

Holding back a sigh, knowing kids picked up on signals like that, Jason asked gently, "Was there something else you needed?"

"I'm hungry," Damian said, those two words sending pin pricks of fear right back into Jason's body.

"Okay," He said, backing up a bit, "Well, shouldn't your dad do something about that?"

Damian pulled that little twisty face he did, the one, even as a demon, made him look like a bulldog. "Father always brings me weird things. Last time he gave me a rabbit."

"A rabbit?" 

Damian nodded, "He wanted me to eat it even though it was still alive. I told him I wanted those lucky charms the priest and Richard always bought me but he couldn't find the right ones."

"So, did you eat the rabbit?" Jason asked hesitantly, not sure whether he wanted to know the answer.

Damian scowled again, "I let it go idiot. Father said I couldn't keep it and Selina was starting to take a dislike to him. Now fetch me something to eat. I'm sick of waiting."

"I don't think we have lucky charms," Jason warned, glad that at least Damian was asking for something normal, and that he hadn't killed the rabbit. It looked like Damian's love for animals transcended universes.

"Then make me something else," Damian snapped, keeping close as they navigated the halls to the kitchen. 

At one point, Damian took Jason's hand, Jason forcing himself not to do something stupid like pull away as he remembered the photo's he and Dick had stolen. Father Todd had held Damian's hand when they went places. Father Todd had looked after this little creature as well as a full blown demon for more than a year. If Father Todd was still alive, Jason was going to seriously tell Thomas to fund whatever venture he wanted to do next. The man had to be some kind of saint, and, as Thomas' kind of not so kind of grandson, this universes' Jason Todd should be entitled to some privileges. 

He hesitated a moment before lifting the kid up when they got to the kitchen, placing him, when he wasn't bitten, onto the counter as Jason rummaged around for whatever he could scrounge up. There was bread, and butter, the essentials for a bachelor with no Alfred, and when Damian didn't object to toast, in fact pushed the lever down on the toaster with a childlike sense of joy, he figured toast would do.

Damian had quite the appetite, finishing the full loaf and the left over pasta Jason had made.

"I'm tired," Damian said when he was done, hopping down from the counter. He held his hand out expectantly, Jason taking it as he started them back into the main manor.

"So where's your dad sleeping?" If he did sleep. 

"He is with the Bat man," Damian said. Which wasn't helpful at all. "But what does that have to do with sleep? Do you have my covers here?"

"Covers?" He was just going to have to expect he was going to be confused almost all the time in this universe.

"The ones with the cats on. The priest bought them specifically for myself. He wrapped my sheet in them and said I could sleep in it as we drove to Central City." 

Jason shot the kid a little look. "You do know I'm not the priest right? I don't have all your stuff or whatever."

"I know." Except Jason didn't think he did. "Where are we sleeping? I refuse to bed down in that living room. Not when I know this place has a double bed. My other me got a double bed."

Jason took him to the second floor where Dick was already stripped to his shorts and not so subtly listening in on Thomas' room. With Dick in sight, Damian finally left Jason to go ask more about elephants. Jason, when Dick not so subtly tried to get him to stay, just waved them down the hall, promising to be there soon so Dick should get Damian tucked in before taking Dick's former place listening in on the Wayne patriarch.

He chose a moment where the noises from within were particularly silent before knocking, unsurprised to find not only one but two Bruce's talking with Thomas. He refused to get involved, even if he wanted nothing more than to drag Bruce away from that demon. So he turned to Thomas and asked, "Is it cool if I give Damian one of Bruce's old toys?"

The old man floundered, demon Bruce from the pillows asking, "Why?"

"Because he's a kid and he's tired. What, you saying you didn't have any toys in this world? Because I know for a fact in mine Bruce has this stuffed-"

"Alright Jason," Bruce interjected, both of them knowing Bruce still slept with his cuddly cat whenever no one was there for him to smother in his bed. 

"So, can I? Or are you hoping the termites will get it?"

Thomas, looking more pained than ever, gave a slow nod eventually, probably figuring since his son was still alive and he had a grandson now to look after, he may as well not hold Bruce's old things in such a precious regard. Even if that precious regard was the attic where half of Bruce's childhood toys were destroyed. At least Bruce had the decency to keep Jason's things in good order.

He found what he was looking for after a good ten minutes, unearthing the same cat toy, except missing a nose, that Bruce had in his world. He figured the kid would be able to tell if there were termites, doing a little patch up in the kitchen before saving Dick from tucking Damian in.

Although, they did make quite a sight. Dick had them both under the covers, a kids book he had to have unearthed from some secret place in the library held above them. Damian wasn't even fussing, Jason wondering if he'd even been read to before. Talia had to have had some say in his upbringing. Maybe. That was if she was still alive. Jason waited for them to be done with their paragraph before slipping the stuffed cat over to Damian.

"It was your dads," Jason said before Damian could make some comment about it. "He said you could have it."

Damian held it up, inspecting it in the dim light. "It looks like Selina."

So Selina was a cat. That cleared a few things up. "Yeah?" Dick asked, looking just as relieved as Jason, "Where's Selina now then? You said Jason went looking for her."

Obviously Damian had to have found him, otherwise Selina wouldn't have been able to object about the rabbit. "She's with Colin," Damian said, obviously content with that arrangement if he wasn't insisting on a rescue mission.

The stuffed cat was brought down, settled on the pillow where Jason was guessing Selina usually slept. "You want to finish the story or go to sleep?" Jason asked, taking the book from Dick and letting him slip out of the covers. 

"Sleep," Damian decided, a small wave Jason was all to familiar with dismissing him from Damian's service, "You may leave now."

"Okay," Dick said, "But if you need anything we'll be right next door."

"And don't slap me awake," Jason added, wondering if Damian wanted the light left on. He left it, figuring the kid probably lived in darkness too much. He left the door slightly open too, Dick giving him that stupid face that told Jason he'd done something adorable as they did indeed take the bedroom right next door. "We're just gonna sleep then?" Jason asked, "No move yet?"

Dick shrugged, "Demon Bruce said he could lure Richard here on his own. Said he would take care of trapping him too. We should be going home right now but... Bruce is kind of having a hard time saying goodbye."

"So you trust him then?" Was what Jason was hearing, "The demon? You think he's on our side?"

"He made the trap," Dick said. He moved about the room, puttering about while Jason warmed up his own side of the bed. When he finally came over, shoving Jason to the cold side with no apology, he slipped something into Jason's hand. "Damian's sweet."

It was a note, Dick's crappy handwriting deciphered as  _Of course I don't idiot. But I'm not going to say so to his face_. "Yeah," Jason agreed. "Cute too. It's kind of hard to remember he's the alternate version of our brat."

"No it's not," Dick said, always one to defend Damian. "He's just as sweet in our world and you know it. The only difference here is that he's not afraid to show it. It's, interesting, seeing what he would be like without Talia's influence."

"I know. I thought he would be more Bruce." He thought Bruce would be more Bruce too, but, Jason supposed being a demon had to have some personality differences. "He's very innocent."

Dick hummed, the two of them staring off into nothing. "I hope we're just woken up," Dick says. "He just comes in and tells us we have to go. I want to make sure the demon's trapped but, at the same time, I don't want any part in it."

"Yeah." Jason could live with just a quick look in and Bruce's word that everything was alright. He would prefer it in fact. "Still, makes you wonder what's going to happen after. I mean, Damian could do better than being carted around like a toy."

He saw Dick grin out the corner of his eye, "You wanna bring him back with us?"

"God no," Namely because one Damian was enough, "Although, I have to admit it would be funny to see Tim's face with two of them around." But the kid belonged in this world no matter how much Jason was considering finding alternate arrangements for him. "Dunno, maybe Thomas can sort something out."

"I wouldn't put too much faith in him. He's not exactly a staple of good health right now." Which was fair.

But, "He seems like a good guy. I think he just needs another reason to get out of bed in the morning. Like Bruce." Without Dick and the rest of them Jason would have bet Bruce would have went down the same route of drowning his sorrows in alcohol. The point stood however, that Jason had seen people worse off than Thomas get their lives together for something much less spectacular than a surprise grandchild.

He put thoughts of that aside. They could deal with that after this mess was sorted, and, right now, Jason was still tired as hell, so he turned his back on Dick and tried not to breathe the dust that covered every inch of this manor.

Yet God had something against Jason getting a good eleven hours. While he did note he still had a good five hours before Tim would be crashing the party with the JL, he woke snugger than he had went to sleep. Dick, Jason excused since it was in his nature to koala up to anyone within the nearest vicinity. But the other, Jason stiffened once more before he noted, again, that the body at his front was too small to be Richard.

Whatever shampoo Damian used was amazing Jason thought as that baby soft hair tickled his cheek. Yet even that didn't help Jason figure out just why the little demon was cuddling up to him. Well, unless the kid just wanted company. A foreign concept perhaps to think about in regards to a demon. But, again, Damian was just half a demon, and still a young one at that. 

That however, wasn't what had woke Jason up. Ever since moving back into Wayne manor Jason had gotten used to the surprise slumber parties. He woke more often with someone in his bed than without. Usually it was Tim, the kid seeming to either have a death wish or just that tired he didn't care as he forewent whatever warning his brain sent him and crawled into Jason's bed. Jason had tried locking his door, but the kid only saw that as a minor obstacle his brain could complete in seconds flat. Jason supposed it was his own fault. When he was having a lie in his room was the closest to the kitchen, and after Tim had been forced up for something to eat he probably couldn't be bothered to walk the rest of the way to his own room. 

Cass was the next biggest culprit. She just liked the company, and since she didn't know Jason as well as the others she saw it as a kind of bonding experience for them. Usually she would bring Jason a book for him to read to her, one she couldn't read herself just yet or not as fast as she wanted in order to talk to Steph about. The others had usually kept their distance, Dick because he was, well, half dead, and Damian because the kid had pride Jason envied at times. So spontaneous sleepovers weren't that big of a deal to Jason.

Nor should this one have woken him up.

He couldn't put his finger on it, it wasn't worry or fear that had drove him awake. Not like last time. Just a feeling that he needed to be awake. 

He figured it was just his body reacting to the constant state of alertness it had been subjected to almost constantly since he was twelve but, this didn't feel like that. 

He moved Damian carefully, pushing the kid in until Dick could wrap his arms around him. Taking one of his guns, Jason scouted the hallway, checking in Damian's room before moving on to where Bruce should have been. His Bruce at least.

Thomas' door was shut, Jason trying the handle and finding it thankfully unlocked. Bruce was still inside, looking up from where he'd taken a nap. Jason did a quick search, finding the scars on Bruce's person before scouting the rest of the room and coming in.

"Something wrong Jay?" Bruce asked.

"Bad feeling."

Bruce didn't look too concerned. "Richard's probably here," he said, tacking on, "Thomas and the other me are handling it. They're gonna call me down when it's done." He even peeled the sheet back, the invitation to doze the rest of his stay in Wayne manor clear.

Yet Jason couldn't shake his feeling. "I don't think it's Richard." He tried to pin point it down again. It wasn't like Jason was being watched. It wasn't like anything dangerous. More, a sense of panic that he couldn't shake. Like he was having a nightmare he knew wasn't real but at the same time couldn't help his body's natural response. "You know when demon you is around, do you feel things off him? Like, vibes or anything?"

"Not really," Bruce said, looking a bit more alert now regardless. "But then, he's a demon. He could be wise to shielding himself from others, including me."

Jason nodded, "That's what I thought."

Bruce fetched his suit, "Go wake Dick, don't do anything. For all we know this could just be a part of the plan."

"What are you gonna do?" Jason asked.

"Sit with you," Bruce said, fetching his belt and herding Jason down the hall and back to where the picture of family domesticity lay.

Jason woke Dick as bid, the two of them careful not to disturb Damian as they joined Bruce by the window. There was nothing below, but then, Jason hadn't expected there to be. It wasn't like whatever had woke him was just going to be standing there staring at him like in a horror movie. That would be ridiculous. 

What was there however, were a bunch of overgrown bushes, the kind Bruce had been specifically looking for. They could make a camp here now they knew there was a soft landing. Jason took the door while Dick went to the en-suite. With a bit of manoeuvring they managed to barricade the window in the bathroom and the door, leaving just the window as the only physical escape open to them. It wouldn't do much against a demon, but considering there might be more than that afoot in this world Jason was pretty proud of his choice to block the door off.

They played cards on the floor while Jason tried to sort out his funny feeling. Bruce kept shooting looks to the bed, probably never seen Damian look so peaceful in sleep before. Or actually sleeping normally outside of being ill. Jason had heard the first time Damian came to the manor Bruce had found the kid sleeping upside down one day and wedged into the corner of his ceiling another. Weirdo. 

"He's fine," Jason said after the fifth such look. "Healthy, fed and sleeping like an angel."

"I wonder what he does with him," Bruce finally said. 

"Like when he feeds?" Dick asked. "He leaves Damian with other me."

Jason shot Dick a look before remembering, again, that Dick had been in the other his memories. It wasn't like it was hard forgetting. Dick didn't exactly advertise what he did or didn't know and Jason didn't want to pry too soon. Still, "What did other you do with him?"

"Richard," Dick started, putting his card down rather harshly, "Would use Damian to lure priests out in the open if he wanted a quick fix. If he was in it for the long haul, he'd use him to get closer to the man. Bring him to charity events. He thought Damian made him seem more approachable."

"Have you met Damian? Richard would probably be more approachable without the kid." Then again, this Damian wasn't the brat the other one was. Well, he was a brat, but, a normal one. He was no more needy than the ones Jason passed on the streets demanding things from their parents. Which reminded him, "Why did he come live with Father Todd? You said that idea got away with the demon."

Dick pursed his lips, his little show of thinking about it not fooling Jason one bit. Dick didn't have to even think to know the demon's motives, but the fear of those being just as clear as his other memories were making him halt. He didn't want to appear more freaky than he already was to them. "So, the demon originally had Damian come with him on the night the orphans came around. Every Tuesday by the way. He wanted to try and slip Damian in, then if Father Todd told him to get lost he could have an excuse for being there."

Dick told the rest of it. How he had abandoned the Damian plan at the Father's request, and since Bruce hadn't come back for his son Dick had left him at the old church where Colin lived. The demon had figured Damian would look after himself, like he usually did, which frankly horrified Jason. Dick said Damian didn't need to eat like a normal kid, nor did he have to feed like Richard, yet Jason had been pretty sure the kid could feel hunger, he'd seen Damian demolish Thomas' bread supply after all. He also slept too, otherwise the demon wouldn't have stolen Damian a bed. It looked to Jason while they knew Damian could do certain things they hadn't questioned themselves whether they should. He obviously felt things like a normal kid, he even let a rabbit go instead of eating it live. To Jason, this just sounded like another case of neglect.

Even more so when he heard his counterpart had agreed with him. One look at the dingy accommodation and Jason had basically pulled a Bruce, springing the kid from the orphanage and basically parenting the life out of him. Jason and Dick both pulled out the photo's they'd stolen from the Drake's residence, Jason noting on both photo's how he didn't look as wary as he thought he would. In fact, he seemed comfortable around Damian in those photo's, and considering Father Todd knew Damian was a demon that spoke a lot.

"God he had balls," Jason said.

"He is you Jay," Dick pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly handling this whole paranormal stuff with the grace he did. I mean, a year Dick. What was the demon waiting for?"

Dick's eyes flickered to his cards, remaining steady when they looked back up. "I don't know."

"Don't you?" Jason asked. Dick wasn't even trying to lie.

"I don't," he said again anyway. "And you can disbelieve me if you like Jay, but the answer I do have isn't one I even trust. Can we just get back to our game?"

"Dop it," Bruce reiterated when Jason was about to do the opposite. "And both of you hand your cards over, I saw your decks. Honestly, I thought I taught you better than this."

"Alfred taught me," Jason said.

"Me too," Dick grinned.

Bruce sighed, shuffling the pack, "Why do I have such unappreciative children?"


	9. Chapter 9

They were making a castle out of cards when Damian woke. The little demon was quick to yawn, padding his way over to loom expectantly over Jason.

"Yes?" Jason asked.

"I'm hungry," Damian said, shuffling a little on his toes, "Also I require the facilities. Point me in the direction of one that works."

Jason shot a look at Bruce. This was his fault. Him and all the other Bruce's across the multiverse had made this kid. Still, he got up anyway and took the kid to Thomas' room. 

Damian took longer than Jason would normally have thought. Long enough that Jason was beginning to wonder if demons had like an extra appendage or something that needed emptying. Either way, he knocked on the door after another two minutes, the wood giving under after the third to let out Damian. The kid strolled on past, Jason glancing inside to see the sinks overflowing with water as he tried to catch up with the little demon. 

"Food," Damian demanded as soon as Jason was near. 

"Or," Jason offered, "No food, and we play a game of cards instead. Your dad's busy downstairs and I don't want to interrupt."

Damian stomped his foot, "But I'm hungry."

"And Thomas doesn't have any food anyway," Jason countered, herding Damian back into his room where Bruce was waiting to do up the barricade again. "Look, if your dad isn't finished in an hour we'll sneak out the window and get some pizza. Maybe a bagel too, and some coffee." God he was hungry himself. "But until then we're playing cards. Okay?"

Jason expected to be hit. At the very least burned. But Damian just huffed up at him before going to grab the deck off Dick. 

Jason helped but the last of the barricade back in place, more than a little amused when they sat down as Damian scooted himself into Bruce's lap. The look the old man had was priceless. Now, Jason knew it had been a few years since he'd had one of his kids in his lap, well, one that wasn't a twenty two year old attention hog, but he still shouldn't have looked that lost when Damian made himself comfortable. Nor should Dick have looked that jealous. It wasn't like it was their Damian doing this. If it were, Dick should have known the kid wouldn't choose Bruce over him, something that was a fact of life at this point. 

"What kind of games do you know then Damian?" Bruce asked after a moment. He carefully slid his arms around, one anchoring Damian while the other took the cards. "You know Go Fish?"

"I know snap," Damian said. "The priest taught it to Colin and I when we had a sleepover."

"That was nice of him," Dick said.

Maybe not if Damian spent half of his time destroying Father Todd's place. The challenge of mastering a new game had to keep the little demon occupied for a few hours. Enough to probably clean the mess Damian had made beforehand.

Bruce handed out the deck, turning Damian's hand away when the kid tried to look at his own cards. Surprisingly, Damian wasn't too violent about the game. He didn't try and crush Jason's hand like the other Damian did when they played snap. Nor did he slam his hand down like Tim. Damian played by the rules, and seemed to be a bit annoyed when Dick tried to bend them to win a good hand. 

It was, dare Jason say it, cute, and definitely not what he had been expecting when the kid told them he could play snap.

Despite all his cheating, Dick won the first round, happily doling out the second, then the third when he won that one until Damian grew bored once more and looked two seconds away from asking if he could chew on Bruce's arm. They had to placate him with blackjack after that, Dick and Jason tapping out as Bruce explained the rules. 

He took a wiz out the window, something apparently Bruce had a problem with, despite the fact Jason had seen him doing the exact same thing on more than once occasion when he was hiding from someone in the manor. It probably didn't help however, that Jason was basically pissing on their one exit. Should things go south they would be looking to thoroughly dry cleaning their gear when they got home.

"Mind if I play the next round?" Was asked as he zipped up, Jason doing a double take when he saw Dick.

Far too close was the first indicator that something was wrong. The next being that he could hear the other three sets of breathing further into the room. Lastly, not counting Bruce's scurry to his feet, was the fact Dick was notably not wearing his Nightwing gear. 

Bruce, despite still having cuts that bled if he moved too far or too fast, wasted no time placing himself between Jason and the demon. Jason could say a lot of things about Bruce but his bravery had never been in question for a moment. Yet even the safety of seeing Bruce's cape instead of Richard's face didn't change the cold fear that took root in his bones. 

"Oh relax," The demon said. "If I wanted to hurt you, well, you know how easy I can do that now don't you."

"Get out," Bruce said.

"No," Richard said simply, coming back into Jason's eye line as he walked over to Damian. "Hey Dami, how's things been?"

Damian grinned up at Richard, only briefly however as the next second he was back to scowling, the cards in his hands crumpling as he turned pointedly away from him.

"Dami," Richard sighed, actually crouching down like he was being nice or something. "It wasn't my fault. I didn't want to leave you. You or Jason."

"You did," Damian said. "We looked for weeks. The priest was inconsolable."

There was a pause, Jason seeing Dick, their Dick, creep around the shadows of the room, edging closer to Damian as Richard finally said, "You missed me too right? I know I missed you. The other Damian wasn't half as fun."

Damian still didn't smile, Bruce backing Jason up to the window ever so slowly as the kid distracted the demon. "What do you want?" Damian asked.

"To see you," Dick said immediately. 

"Liar," Damian accused. "You just want to know what father's planning. That or where he's hiding the priest. I'm not stupid you know."

Richard held his hands up, "I never said you were." Yet he wasn't as good at playing his cards right as Dick since he immediately leapt on, "But if you do know where your father is keeping Jason that would definitely be a help."

Damian flung the cards at Richard's face, on his feet the next moment as he near shouted, "No! And if you were really that concerned then why did you leave in the first place?"

"Damian," Richard said, a tang of irritation there now, "I told you, that wasn't my fault. Now please, where is he keeping Jason?" He softened again, even going so far as to take Damian's little shoulders in hand, a power move if Jason had ever seen one, but still one adults 'claimed' was meant to reassure children. "I'm asking for us Dami. Once we find Jason we can leave. We can go back home, you can see your cats, hell I'll even let you bring them in. And you can have that cereal you like, and those paints Jason promised to get you. Doesn't that sound nice?"

There was a signal, Jason catching the sharp move of Dick's head just as Bruce pushed Jason out the open window. The fall was brief, Jason's back not thanking him in the slightest for the surprise landing as he rolled off the bushes and into the wider lawn. Bruce was right behind him, Dick too as soon as a little thing was flung out before him. Bruce caught Damian, the kid probably the only one to land softly.

Not that it mattered. Richard was a freaking demon, they only had to blink and he was standing in front of them.

Bruce once more took charge of Jason, and since Richard was more concerned about Damian his whole shove and move thing was actually working. Jason ran until he hit the treeline, Bruce not letting him look back as he, once more, shoved him forward and towards the edge of the Wayne property line. 

The trees were overgrown here, just like the rest of the manor. The roots were wild, tripping Jason's boots as he flung himself through the practised paths Bruce made them remember should someone break in and they needed a quick escape. The path, while almost incomprehensible, led out onto the road, and from there the plan was either to wait at Drake manor or head to town, neither of which Jason wanted to do right now. Namely because he couldn't see Dick anywhere near them.

"Where are they?" He panted, more out of fear than exhaustion, he used to run that route for fun as a kid. "I don't see them? Bruce where are they?"

Bruce wasn't doing so well. His wounds had reopened somewhere, his face pale and sweaty as he did try and catch his breath. Jason wasn't reassured at all when he eventually said, "Dick will be fine," and tried to hurry them along the practised path to the Drake house. 

"That's a demon. What the hell is he even doing there? I thought other you was supposed to be dealing with him," Jason accused. Unfairly since Bruce knew just about as much as Jason did, but he was too fixated on the fact that Dick still hadn't appeared in their line of sight to think straight anymore. 

"Something must have went wrong," Bruce reasoned, Jason knowing, he knew, deep down that Bruce didn't believe it.

But it was Bruce that had sided with the demon in the first place. "Or right?" Jason said. "He's a demon Bruce. They both are. They were probably working together. That other mass we saw when we came into this world? That was probably him. We're probably being led into some kind of trap and Dick's-"

"Jay," Bruce snapped, taking Jason's arm, more leaning against it for support than giving it, "Just calm down," he panted, "I know you're scared, but Dick can handle himself, and the demon isn't after him this time. He's smart enough to leave when he needs to. So breathe and walk. I'm here, I promise and I'm not going to let him get you."

Jason helped Bruce get a firmer grip, the layers between his and Bruce's skin the only thing stopping him from actually panicking and finding some place to hide. "I can't shoot him," Jason eventually said, which was really the crux of his fear.

"I know," Bruce said.

With the others, there was always a definite end. A bullet to the brain meant they would no longer haunt his nightmares, that they couldn't touch him anymore. When they were dead they didn't matter anymore. But this, with the demon, a bullet wasn't going to solve Jason's problem. He couldn't rid himself of the nightmare that could reach him anywhere and anytime it liked. There was no door that could keep the demon out, and unless Jason was just going to draw a demon trap everywhere he went on every surface he could reach he was going to get grabbed at some point, and that scared the hell out of him. 

The Drake house was still disabled from Jason and Dick's recent break in. With help, Jason near carried Bruce through the front door and set about trying to remember just where he'd seen Tim's markers as Bruce caught his breath. 

He'd almost forgotten about Tim's little weirdo stalking photo's until he encountered a few they had forgot to put away as he raided the kids room for some sharpies. Definitely not normal, Jason thought as he rejoined Bruce downstairs. "I say we hole up in the study. There's a phone, but no food so... er, kitchen?" He sorted through three more rooms before Bruce finally regained enough strength to talk over Jason's worry.

"We'll hole up in the study," He said, grabbing Jason's arm as they walked, slowly, to where Jack or Janet's so called study was.

Jason got to work sharpieing his damn hardest into the carpet. Giving up and finding something else to mark it when it took too long. Bruce was already on the phone when Jason abandoned his search in the study to go elsewhere. Bruce said he was phoning the GCPD, but since this Gotham's GCPD was probably worse than their own Jason knew Bruce was lying. Who else he might have been contacting was a mystery. The only person they knew here was Thomas, but Thomas was back at the manor.

To top it all off Dick still hadn't appeared. It wasn't like he didn't know the contingencies either. They all had been drilled on what to do should the manor become compromised. 

He should be here by now.

Jason scurried around, checking his guns when he walked too long down a hall and the knife in his boot when he crouched to look for something that would mark a carpet. The Drake manor wasn't exactly as large as the Wayne, but it was big enough for Jason to start worrying about Bruce the longer he walked down the labyrinth to nowhere. 

He opened each and every door he could, even going so far as to break one down before he found something that looked promising. While chalk wasn't necessarily the best thing in the world since it was flaky and wispy, oftentimes needing to be drawn over if someone so much as breathed the wrong way, it did show up on carpet. Not really minding the colour, he stuffed the bright children's pack in his jacket, touching his knife once more before grabbing the errant stick that had rolled its way to an unmarked door.

Damn rich people. 

He knew there were secret passages in old houses. It was actually a smart decision on the owners part to have a few installed. One in the ballroom then, wasn't that unheard of. Except, Jason knew this was one of the lesser used ballrooms. One that had long gone out of commission for luncheons and lavish parties. The smart thing the Drakes should have done was cut this one off and navigate the other to one of the more well used ones. Which, Jason thought they probably had as he jimmied the thing open. 

Sure enough, the place had been narrowed down to no bigger than a storage cupboard if that. Still, the inside was enough to send chills down Jason's spine. There was a carving at the bottom, with tracks of blood running through the cracks. The demon trap was easy to make out, except the etchings were different to the ones Jason had seen Bruce and Damian draw. There were others too, along the walls and on the door, even on the chains that lay hanging from the ceiling. He poked at one, seeing the hints of blood on the manacles, but not enough to suggest they had been used all the time. 

It was like a torture chamber. One Jason sorely could have used in his own world. 

"Jay?" Came behind him, Bruce limping over. "You were taking too long."

"I er, found some chalk," He ground out, clearing his throat before stuffing the last piece of it in his jacket. "Come on, let's get you sitting down again."

Bruce didn't budge, casting quick glances to the door and the open cupboard. "Maybe we should stay here."

"Why?" He didn't like the fleeting glances, not one bit. Especially because Bruce got that look he usually did when he was trying not to spook Jason. The one he'd long since grown out of when he found out it didn't really work. "Bruce what's going on?"

"I saw Dick," he said. Good news Jason supposed, until, "At least, I think it was Dick. Jay maybe you should stay here until we know."

"I..." He wanted to argue, but this was a ready made trap right here. All Jason would have to do was step out of it should Dick turn out to be Richard and they would have what they came for just in the Drake manor rather than Wayne. "I guess."

"Okay," Bruce nodded, almost herding Jason inside. "I'm gonna look, you just stay here until I come get you."

"Right," Jason agreed, stepping over the line into the cupboard. "Don't take too long alright?"

"I won't," Bruce promised, gently pushing Jason the last few feet. "Scream if you need anything." Then, with a fluid motion that would bug Jason for a while, Bruce shut the door firmly in Jason's face.

There was no handle on this side. Nor any light. The air was stale already and the stench of old blood and badly used cleaning products growing more potent the more Jason breathed in. 

He tapered down his panic. Locked it was as familiar to Jason as sleeping. He was locked up before he could even walk, his mom shutting him away if she had people around she needed to entertain. Then his dad when Jason stepped out of line. He freaking hated that wardrobe, but it had turned out to be good training for becoming Robin. Where others had screamed and bashed on the door Jason had just sat and waited. Or, if he had his gear, worked his own way out, his mind clear and panic under wraps. 

This was just like that. In fact, it was one of the nicer holes he'd been put in. He remembered this one time he'd actually been shut up with a dead body. That had been a doozy, and smelled much worse than this high end room. 

He sat himself down, tapping out an old song on his knee, making sure his knife was still there, his guns still loaded as he got to the chorus. Bruce would be back. He was fine. More than fine. This was a demon trap. It was completely safe here. 

He found himself memorising the carvings, tracing them with his fingers. There had been something off about Bruce. It wasn't just the glimpse Jason had before the door shut either.

It was probably Tim, Jason reasoned. He had to be, what, forty minutes away from coming for them by now? Bruce was bound to be a bit weird. He never liked things varying from the plan, and things certainly had here. Their time frame had been too short to do all of this alone, yet too risky to wait longer. Bruce was probably just annoyed that the JL was about to gatecrash. That was all. 

Yet, Jason couldn't help thinking back to it, to the way Bruce shut the door. Jason didn't bother trying to open it. Without the handle the door was locked, just like the Drakes had probably planned for their weird little dungeon. It made Jason wonder however, just why Bruce would shut him in here in the first place. Yes, it was safe, but should Richard actually come for Jason in here Jason couldn't get out. 

He kicked the door, the wood not giving an inch under his boot. He kicked again, aiming for where the handle should be. 

If this was part of their plan then it was a crappy plan Jason thought as he started yelling. "Dick!" He screeched, kicking the door again and again until his leg was aching from the reverberations. "Dick! Don't let him get near you!"

Damian had been far too comfortable for a kid that had done nothing but just look at Bruce the last he'd seen him. He'd sat in Bruce's lap for Christ's sake. Yes, it could have just been confusion, but it could have been something else too. 

"Dick!" 

Thomas was gone. So was the demon, and they had all assumed they were downstairs because Bruce had told them so. Yet Bruce wasn't stupid, even he could figure out that a demon, a freaking demon, would be able to tell when there was a trap waiting for him. Bruce wouldn't just be sat there letting others work out the danger for themselves. Nor would he have just sat there with Jason playing cards. 

Richard had been convincing. So convincing Jason could have sworn it was Dick at times, so why couldn't Bruce do the same? Possession meant they shared thoughts, shared bodies, and for a guy that barely showed he was even capable of feeling the word hurt he sure had been playing it up. 

Richard wasn't going to just find demon Bruce and step happily into the trap waiting for him. There had to be a lure, Damian had said that demon Bruce was the one to take Jason. Or, the kid thought he had. One whiff of Father Todd would have the demon sniffing around the manor. He would be sure to stay when he saw Damian, maybe even Jason there too.

"Dick!" He kicked the door again, hoping that Bruce had been somewhat right about Dick being nearby. 

He took a breath, thinking calmly. The door didn't have a handle. That was fine, Jason could figure this out. With no lock to pick and no way to properly see the jam that would show Jason the latch since he'd left his mask back at the manor, he had to think of another way out. This had to have been a secret passage, a cupboard was unlikely simply because there was no way the Drakes would have liked hosting a party here in any era and chance one of their guests seeing their cleaning supplies. While it had been boarded up, Jason would bet his life it wasn't as completely sturdy as it should have been.

Jason knew because they had a brat like Tim running around the house. There was no way the kid would just leave a secret passage alone, not even in this warped world. There had to be a way in there somehow. 

Jason started feeling along the hall, any indication that a young Tim had chipped away at his parents brick wall just to see that he was right. Jason just needed a head start, the rest he could figure out on his own, and, luckily, the world didn't completely hate him today as he found such a hole near his ankles. He fit his finger through, knowing the Drakes had probably figured it was rats or mice that had made the hall judging from the size.

"Thank God Timmy," Jason muttered, standing upright to get a good grip on the chains above his head. 

He didn't think himself weak by any stretch, and since he'd had good practice yanking on chains he was a natural as he put all his weight behind his pulls. The metal took a while to give way, the Drakes not putting too much stock into them since they figured their little demon trap would hold their prisoner. With the metal in hand, Jason twisted the screws out and used the flat surface of the wrist cuffs to chip away at the wall. It was mostly plaster that stood in his way and freedom, a bit of wood here and there, but nothing like stone like Jason had feared. His manacle was making good time, the hole opening bigger and bigger, yet still not as fast as Jason wanted.

He had about a Damian sized hole by the time the handle turned behind him, Jason whipping the chain as soon as light hit his eyes, the metal striking the person dead in the face. Strangely, the yelp that followed actually sounded real, and as Jason hefted his chain once more into the air he saw why.

It wasn't Dick. Nor was it Bruce, and as Damian crashed into Jason so he wouldn't whack his carer again Jason couldn't help cursing as he looked at the damage done to Father Todd. 

He had been bleeding long before Jason had added to his list of injuries. His eyes were puffy, his jaw too from bruises that swelled his entire face. While there was no dogs collar, thank God, the clothes he did have on were grimy with sweat and blood, sticking to his skin and making it fairly obvious he'd been through hell. Maybe literally.

"What the hell did they do to you?" Jason asked.

Father Todd rubbed his face a bit more, for all the good it did him, his one eye he wasn't clutching doing its damnedest to glare up at Jason with little success. He didn't answer Jason's question, and instead pried Damian from Jason's person, the kid going willingly and grabbing onto the hand that was offered. "If you know what's good for you leave now." And taking his own advice Father Todd did just that, turned on his heel and just walked away.


	10. Chapter 10

Jason ran to catch up, following Father Todd as he slipped out the front door and towards one of the cars the Drake's still had in their drive. 

While a saintly life Father Todd led now, that didn't always seem to be the case as he easily had the car up and running in moments without a key. He didn't put up too much of a fuss when Jason slid into the back. In fact, he looked a bit eased as Jason loaded one of his guns up, the two of them doing just what Father Todd had said and booked it out of there as fast as the Drake's car could get them.

Superman was coming soon Jason reminded himself when they got onto the highway. As soon as the J.L. was on this world they would find him, and bring him back home. They weren't gonna leave him. Bruce wouldn't let them. Well, when Bruce got back from his vacation to possession town anyway. Besides, it was probably best Jason was here instead of mixing himself up with the demons. Here, he could look out for Father Todd, who seemed to be at the heart of whatever maniacal thing Richard had planned. If worst came to worst Jason could just switch them out, it wouldn't be the first time he'd been a sacrificial lamb, and he was sure now that he'd got the measure on Father Todd his impression could be a little better.

"Don't suppose you know any witches in this world?" Jason piped up as they crossed the bridge into Metropolis. 

"No," Father Todd said just as Damian turned around with a grin.

"I do," The kid said. "I know a lot. They always try and bribe father with gifts so he will help them."

Father Todd sighed, "We're meant to be getting away from your father Damian. No witches."

"Can we at least get my cats?" Damian asked, his grin not dropping one bit. "Or my sheet? You promised I could sleep in it."

"I did," Father Todd sighed again. "And if I have time I'll go get them when we're safe okay. But, for now how about we stop off somewhere and get you a new one? We'll even get a cat. Any one you want. Within reason."

Damian thought about it for a moment before twisting back into his seat with a simple "Okay."

Metropolis looked worse than Gotham if Jason was honest with himself. Gotham was a dump, don't get him wrong. But this place looked like a nuke had hit it. Or at least a bomb of some large scale as they passed building after building that had been reduced to nothing but cinders. 

The reason for why became clear as they passed the city square. Instead of the blinding white buildings and the shining dome of the Daily Planet there was fire everywhere, and at the centre a skinny shade of a Kryptonian battling tank after tank as they came over to him. Jason tried to work out just who it was before the next building hid the guy from sight. His mind knew it was Clark before he accepted it, but the Clark Jason knew could never be that malnourished. In fact, Jason remembered seeing school photo's of Clark Bruce had on the Batcomputer. Not once in Clark's long life had he ever looked like the shade that was tearing Metropolis apart.

They reached the outskirts just as morning dawned. A whole day they had been driving, Jason seeing the horrors that this world had to offer. They booked down in a motel, Jason keeping close as they did what Father Todd had promised and found an all night store to get Damian a new cat strewn sheet. The cat itself Jason took care of, jimmying open a pet store that looked abandoned as Metropolis evacuated and freeing the poor things trapped inside.

Three cats were meowing their heads off at Jason, the poor little things sniffing his hands for food as he loaded them into one of the boxes behind the counter. He stuffed some food inside too and broke into the convenience store after for some water and snacks for himself.

Other Jason obviously knew where all these new things came from, yet didn't utter a word about the horrors or stealing as he handed Damian a twinkie.

"Here," Jason said, handing over the box. "Why don't you name them, and make sure they don't get away."

Damian scowled, but Jason heard him cooing over the kittens as soon as he turned his back.

He pulled up a chair, joining Father Todd by the window, the two of them having one of Jason's guns each. "So," Jason started. "You're a priest."

"You're not," Father Todd fired back.

"No," Jason agreed.

Father Todd sighed, "If you're going to mock me just do it. I've been inside your head enough to know your feelings on the cloth."

Jason bristled, not exactly liking this mind sharing thing. Well, not the other way around anyway, Jason would kill to read into this Jason's life. He had so many questions. But he supposed the most pressing thing for now was clearing the air between them. "If you've been inside my head then you know I have nothing but respect for you."

"Because I kept a demon," Father Todd mocked.

"Because you're a good guy. I may not remember your life like you do mine, but any guy that looks after children and the homeless without expecting anything back deserves respect. Hell, I heard you put up with Tim's shit for a year. That deserves a saintly amount of patience. Trust me, I know. So I don't think your job is stupid. If anything, I wish I had an ounce of the goodness you do." Because it was goodness. This guy was able to take the higher ground time and time again. Jason had never been able to rise above like that. He shot the guys that pissed him off not forgave them, and if he needed a specific example of his insane pettiness he just had to walk past that family portrait.

Father Todd shuffled slightly, one of Jason's tells he knew, and, in good old Jason fashion Father Todd just brushed the sentimentality away with, "Yeah well." Promptly changing the subject to, "So, Dick's your brother."

"Damian too. And Tim. Bruce is our dad and Alfred like our real dad because Bruce can be useless sometimes." It was probably weird to Father Todd. But, to Jason, it was kind of weird they weren't family in this universe. He cleared his throat, "So, er, you have anyone here?" Since, if Jason heard Willis was still around, Shelia too, he was seriously going to go on a shooting spree. 

"Just Damian," Father Todd said. "Dick too, but, I don't know if that's..."

Right. Here it was, the crux of everything Jason had wanted to know. He didn't know where to begin. Father Todd seemed to be torn too, just standing there letting Jason lead the conversation from here on out. "I don't know what to say," Jason said when he couldn't decide on one question. "I mean, didn't you ever question whether Richard had ulterior motives? You knew he was a demon." Since that seemed to be part of Richard's M.O.

"I... had my suspicions. At the beginning anyway," Father Todd confessed. "He attacked me. Multiple times actually. But, I don't know, something seemed sincere in him after a while. I started to think that if he truly wanted me dead he wouldn't have made himself so comfortable."

Yeah, that did pull out a few questions. With the other priest, back in Jason's world, there was no sign of the demon save the photo's and people seeing him. The writing on the wall was Father Todd's, the carnage after the priest was dead was Richard's. But, it wasn't like he'd laid foundations. Not like he had in this world, with Father Todd no less. Jason didn't know what to think. Maybe it was because Richard was in another world that his habit changed. Either way, without further study, and seeing for himself whether Richard had his own nick knacks in the house like he did at Father Todd's, Jason just couldn't make an assumption. Regardless, if that was the case, that Father Todd was unique here too, it brought up a lot more questions again. 

"Right," Jason said after a while, abandoning that line of questioning. He just, he couldn't deal with it without more evidence, and evidence wasn't exactly something Father Todd could just pull out his ass. He was just as blind here as Jason. At least on this front. "About the whole, rape, thing. Did he ever... with you?"

"Yeah," Father Todd forced out. "But, it wasn't his fault."

"Bullshit," Jason scoffed, having to draw the line here. "Okay, if we're going to continue this, here's a little something I learned about Richard and every other bastard like him. It's their fault. Not ours, nor anyone else. Theirs. They're the ones that kept going when we said no so-"

"No," Father Todd said, this time being the one that scoffed. "Trust me, I know all that crap. I'm just telling you, with Dick, it wasn't his fault. He was probably the only one who did care whether I said yes or not."

That, did not sound like the demon Jason knew. "You're gonna have to elaborate here because I'm lost. He's a freaking incubus. They don't know the meaning of the word no."

"He's not just an incubus. You know that as well as I do." Father Todd finally pulled up a chair, the gun relaxing in his hand, sat in a way that Jason realised mirrored himself. Father Todd might not have held a gun for a while, but with Jason's impression still clear in his mind he had a good head start on the basics of gun care. It was interesting to see. "First time, it was all Tim's fault. His father's an ass."

"Don't have to tell me that," Jason snorted. "Dick and I stumbled upon his little dungeon of horrors while we were scoping the place. Quite frankly I'm glad he's kind of dead considering how many photo's Tim had of you. It looked like you might have been next on his list if the brat had handed them over sooner." He caught the look Father Todd sported just before he finished speaking, his brain ever so slowly catching up until he was hissing, "No," into the air. 

Jack Drake had better thank the devil himself he was dead. If Tim hadn't have done it, Jason sure as hell would have. Ugh, just thinking about that man, frankly any man with Tim's bloodline, laying a hand on him had Jason's skin tingling. Especially when Jason remembered that little rape room Jack had. God, did he have a photo of Father Todd in there? They had only skimmed the photo's when they cracked that case open, and Tim had been the one to give Jack the idea in the first place. The little weasel-

No. Jason sighed, no, it wasn't Tim's fault. But God he couldn't help hating Tim a little for his part in it all. Poor kid. Jason knew what it was like being pimped out, and in his own home too. At least Jason had his mom, for all the good she did him. Tim's parents were the ones actually doing that to him. They had to be, the profile just fit. 

Father Todd was talking, Jason did his best to follow along as he put his murderous rage aside for the moment. Only for it to come back full force as he heard that Tim sex dusted Father Todd. Again, it was kind of hard not to see Tim's side of things. But that didn't change the fact that others had suffered for it.

Jason had to keep reminding himself that Tim wasn't Robin here. Believe it or not Robin was the best thing to happen to that kid. With Robin, Tim was able to hone what little courage he had and start venturing out into big bad Gotham at night. With Robin, Tim gave himself a coping mechanism for his parents abandonment. Becoming Robin, had gave Tim that special magic all Robin's had, the one that allowed him to become more than himself, to see what was truly good not just for the world but for himself. Yes, he was a wreck in Jason's world, but he was even worse here, and this Tim didn't have the friends and family that Jason's Tim had. 

He was probably still going to punch the first Tim he saw in the balls however. Just because he felt like it.

"That makes sense," Jason said when Father Todd finished his second and third encounter on Dick's dick. "Kind of. But, you were afraid of him, you thought he possessed you."

"I wasn't sure," Father Todd said. "Now I know he didn't. Dick," he shook his head, "He just didn't want to force me."

Jason rubbed his head, mulling through the whole possession spiel. He could see, kind of, with Father Todd's story, how things could be lost in the merge. Father Todd didn't get all of Jason in those blips and Jason didn't get all of Father Todd either. They were both still kind of separate but sharing one mind at the same time. There were parts that were their own, and parts they put together. It would explain why Jason only picked out what he wanted to hear, the damning of Richard, instead of the whole which was Father Todd worrying whether it was Richard, or if Bruce had something to do with it. 

It made Jason wonder just what else had been kept apart in their merge. But, most importantly, he wanted to get to the bottom about Richard's change in behaviour. How did he go from bawling his eyes out in front of Father Todd to sticking his hand down Jason's boxers? 

"So you think it was Bruce?" Jason asked. 

"I know it was," Father Todd confirmed, his tone leaving no room for arguments. 

"Why?" 

Father Todd huffed, shaking his head, "It's so stupid. It's just, they're fighting."

"Excuse me?"

Father Todd kicked his feet onto the windowsill. "Yep. That's it. That's all this has been about. They're fighting. They're having a spat, and instead of screaming at each other and calling it a day they're ruining people's lives to get to each other."

This was sounding far too familiar for Jason to believe. "You're telling me, that Bruce raped you because he's in a huff with Richard?"

Father Todd nodded. "Apparently it all started when Dick first fell. Bruce called Dick's feathers ugly, so Dick killed him in an alley and brought him back as a demon just to make him ugly too. But then, Dick couldn't believe what he'd done, so he went to go get help. To get back for turning him, Bruce ruined his chance at salvation by slipping an aphrodisiac into the priests drink and letting Dick have at it with him, thus killing the priest. But now," there was a manic glint in Father Todd's eye, one Jason knew was in his own, "Dick's got a taste for it, you know, so newly turned that he is. He doesn't want to be doing this, but Bruce is there every step of the way to ruin it until Dick's actually targeting priests for the hell of it." Father Todd huffed out a laugh, "So now we pass a couple of years, Dick's got his own back here and there. At one point Dick stole Damian from his crib and left a dying infant there instead. Distraught, Bruce's paramour kills herself, or someone kills her and now Bruce is out for blood. To make things worse Dick hid Damian for eight years from Bruce, so now the kid prefers Dick to his own father. Apparently, hearing Damian whine for Dick for hours on end really pisses him off."

Jason felt like screaming. He really did. 

If there was one thing Jason knew about it was Bruce and Dick's relationship. Yes, everything is peachy now, but Jason had been there when it hadn't been. When things had been so petty, so absolutely ridiculous Jason would often hear Alfred yell at Bruce right after Dick had stormed out. During that time, Jason had witnessed a many great things, namely being the way that those two idiots that claimed they were adults tried to get back at each other. Bruce took Jason in, so Dick moved out permanently. Dick dropped out of college thus besmirching the Wayne name, Bruce gave Jason Robin. Dick tries to patrol in Gotham, Bruce makes it clear they have their own territories now, and a blood battle ensures that neither will cross into the other. 

Stupid things like that had been the backbone of Jason's childhood, and here it was again, only on a more violent scale. He literally felt like screaming at how insane and similar every single Dick and Bruce in the freaking multiverse was.

He took a deep breath. Then another when his hand had too tight a grip on the gun on his knee. "I'm guessing Bruce told you all this while he was torturing you."

Father Todd held up his hands, "Torturing, being a host, whatever he called it he was awful chatty. If you ask me he needs a therapist not a priest."

"Tell me about it," Jason said. "So," He took another breath, this was going to end up killing him again. Not demons. Not a rogue. This. Just hearing about it. "This doesn't exactly explain the small blip between Richard running off and him paralysing me to feed himself."

"Doesn't it?" Father Todd said, more to himself than to Jason. He sat up, getting himself calmed down too before saying, "So, around the time we resumed in our world I knew Dick wasn't here, so I called this guy who's supposed to be able to communicate between worlds. His name was, er, Sam something, and I told him to tell Dick that I was here, that he could get back. I... I was going to phone a witch to take care of him. After what he did in your world I honestly thought I'd been played."

Then Jason heard the rest of it.

For weeks Father Todd had Sam going to and from the other world, always on the lookout for Richard, but usually only seeing some old guy instead. Father Todd spent most of his time, when he wasn't packing to leave and making plans for where they were going to stay, making deals or finding money that would keep Sam going. 

Then Selina got out, and the next thing Father Todd knows he's waking up in hell. Literal hell. Father Todd didn't say what it was like there, nor did Jason ask him. He was pretty sure that was where he was ending up when this whole second life thing ran out, and, quite frankly, Jason didn't need a preview.

Anyway, it was in hell that Father Todd heard about Bruce and Richard's on and off again relationship between angry mutterings and long nights trying to soothe Damian who wanted nothing more than to see Richard. It was there Jason also learned what happened to Richard.

Apparently, this wasn't the first time such a thing had been done between the two of them. To start with, Richard had been the first one to trap Bruce in a prison of sorts that catered more to the mental than physical aspect of torture. He'd taken a wild, teenaged demon Bruce, and stuck him in a world of Richard's own making. In this world, Bruce was somewhat powerless, he was trapped for mental years living a long, boring life with his parents, and when Richard thought Bruce was content enough with his life, he took him out of the prison and back into the real world. The one where he couldn't explain he was alive without driving his relatives insane. 

Bruce, after seeing that Father Todd still wouldn't kick Richard out and Richard wouldn't give in and kill him, devised a plan of the same calibre. Only, instead of a mental prison, he flung Richard into another universe. Another timeline. 

"I'm guessing he thought the rules were the same. That things weren't real, or, I don't, his demonic nature just gave up, but, he probably didn't think you were real at the beginning," Father Todd said. Jason noted he said at the beginning however. Not all of it. Richard had realised at some point that this wasn't just in his mind. 

"So that just excuses him?" Jason asked. Genuinely asked. He didn't know how Father Todd saw things. For all their similarities there were differences too. 

"No," Father Todd said. "Of course not. I'm just telling you why he might not have been so hesitant with you. I mean, if he thought you weren't real, maybe he didn't care what he did with you."

"And when he did?" Jason asked.

"Maybe he didn't care enough about you."

Which made sense. To the demon, Jason wasn't Father Todd. They wore the same face, they had the same blood, but Jason wasn't Father Todd, he was Jason. He wasn't the guy that had put up with Richard's ridiculous needs for a year. He was the guy that was everything Richard wanted physically and could do whatever he liked to in order to sate his insane curiosity.

Jason wasn't going to lie, he'd kind of done the same to Richard at one point. 

It didn't excuse either of their behaviours, but it did make more sense.

Then afterwards, when the timelines merged and Richard, scared, probably, of disappearing into nothing, had possessed Dick. He could have jumped Jason as soon as they were in the same room together. But he hadn't. He'd played along with being Dick. Testing the waters Jason would hedge, like he was seeing if he could make a life here, with Jason now Father Todd was gone.

"I'm not gonna lie," Jason said, "I hope to God you're not going back to him. He may be nice to you, but he is still a demon. One day he might snap, and I don't know about you, but I hate the idea of going like that."

Father Todd shrugged, "I dunno. The way the world is going, perhaps death by orgasm isn't too bad. But no," He sighed, "I'm not. There's a place we're going to, Damian and me. It's supposed to be safe and, apparently, because Damian is only half demon, he'll be fine there. It might not be for long. I'm probably going to get fifty more cats, but, it's away from all this madness."

"Where'd you hear about it?" Since Jason didn't trust anywhere that had come out of Bruce's mouth.

"Some guy, blond, weird accent. He came knocking one day sprouting some crap about being from a different universe. Guess he might have been right now, but, he said something about a pocket dimension. All we have to do is go to some place in Star City. It's stupid, I know, but, it's hope."

More than hope if this is where Constantine had been. Pocket dimensions kept demons out too, and they would be safe from whatever crap happened in this world. Jason felt himself breathing a little easier. "You're really not going to let Richard in?"

Father Todd shook his head. "It's like you said, he might snap. With Bruce on his tail he will snap and," he sighed, "I'm tired. I can't do that anymore. I can't pick up whatever pieces I have of me left every time he looses control. It killed me once and I am not going to let it kill me again. So he can bash on that door all he likes, I'm not letting him in."

Jason wished he had half the strength Father Todd did. This man was actively saying no to a demon without any surety that his plan was going to work out. Jason may be a hero in his own world, but for that second he would have traded it all just to have an ounce of the courage Father Todd did right now. "You should get some sleep. The J.L. should be here by now. They're like, real big heroes in my world. They should be fending the demons off."

Father Todd nodded, "I remember them. They're the ones destroying my world."

Yeah. "I'll keep watch," Jason promised instead, that at least sending Father Todd over to Damian for some semblance of sleep that night.

He listened to other him tuck Damian in. How gentle he was with the kid, and that, not once, did Damian fight him. Sure, Father Todd had found his way around Damian's buttons, but it was still impressive to listen to. The whole man himself was impressive. 

When Dick came joking, or Tim laughed next time Father Todd was brought up, Jason was going to make sure they knew just how much they were missing out on. Yeah, Jason was a hero. But he was just doing what he knew how to do. He'd never done what Father Todd did and make something good out of the life he'd been given back. While it was argued Jason did some good, he knew he'd done some bad too. Father Todd was literally taking care of a demon child because it was the right thing to do. He didn't want anything back, he was probably expecting at one point to wake with a knife in his back, yet still he was doing so. 

If Jason made it back home, and this whole nightmare was put behind him, maybe he would try to live up to some of Father Todd's example. Even if it was actually putting effort into that stupid charity Bruce wanted him to run. 


	11. Chapter 11

Since he hadn't been told no, and he really didn't want to sit in the back with the cats, Jason drove them the majority of the way through Coast and Central City. The roads, he found were much the same as they were in his world, or, at least, they were so far. He figured if he got too off the right path Father Todd would step in and steer him right. Although, he hoped that time would never come since hell would freeze over before Jason was stepping foot into the backseat with Damian and his horde.

Father Todd, since he wanted the kid, had taken residence next to Damian, both to keep him from harassing Jason and to stop the kittens from roaming free. Right now the priest was succeeding in only one of those things. 

"That's a lovely song Damian," Jason ground out, taking another right turn, "But don't you think you should start on a new one?"

Damian, who was on his fiftieth- Jason had counted- rendition of 'they'll be coming around the mountain' stopped at last to consider this proposal. The silence was short lived however as a grin far too sharp for a child Damian's age greeted him through the mirror as Damian started up again.

Jason shot a look to Father Todd. It had been him that had taught the child in the first place that damn song, and, ordinarily, Jason would have loved to be the one to start on the fifty first round, he was rather high strung at the moment trying not to think of supernatural beings that were on his trail and didn't really have time to appreciate the actually quite lovely timbre of Damian's voice. Father Todd merely shrugged when he met Jason's eyes. They both knew this was the best their journey was going to get, and truly, it was a step up from Damian kicking the back of Jason's seat. But still, it was damn annoying, and Jason was not in the mood.

They stopped off for lunch when Damian hit a hundred. The apocalypse hadn't put everyone out of business it seemed, since diners up and down the highway were still showing off their open signs. Quite frankly Jason was glad that people were stupid as he pulled into the parking lot of some garishly pink establishment. Thanks to their refusal to close he was about to enjoy a rather sizeable hot breakfast.

Or, he would have been had Father Todd leaned across the seats to hiss, "What are we doing here?"

"Getting lunch," Jason said slowly, not sure Father Todd grasped just how long they'd been on the road since their far too early breakfast.

Yet it wasn't the meal itself that turned out to be the problem, more, "And how exactly are you going to pay for it?"

Which was fair, since neither of them had anything regarding pockets on their person never mind wallets. But, "It's the apocalypse and I have guns. I figure, if we ask nicely and I set up a tab in Thomas Wayne's name the guy will sort it out." And if they said no Jason would just inch his gun further into view until they said yes. "I mean, no one's gonna pass up charging a rich guy." They certainly didn't when Jason sent tabs Bruce's way in his own universe.

"It's immoral," Father Todd said and wow, this was the time he was gonna start preaching? He really was Jason since he knew when to pick his moments to be difficult.

"It's desperation and an empty stomach." He sighed when he felt more than heard Father Todd rearing up for a lecture that was sure to resonate with some part of Jason's immortal soul. "Listen, you're me, so I know that you know that we don't pass up the opportunity to feed ourselves to the brink of puking. We're on the run, we're going to a safe house that we may not even get to, or if we do it's another eighteen hour drive and who knows how long after that to find the damn building to get to. This is probably the only chance we're gonna have to eat and I don't know about you but I'm starving, he's starving," Damian grinned menacingly from the car seat Jason stole that morning, "And I don't fancy being chewed on when we inevitably switch seats so- stay here if you want, I'm going in. Damian?"

The kid immediately worked on his buckles and was taking Jason's hand when he stepped out the car.

He didn't look back, just strolled into the diner and negotiated his way into Thomas Wayne's bad books.

It was either sitting alone or leaving Damian alone with Jason that had Father Todd and their box of kittens sliding into the seat opposite them after a few minutes. He didn't look at all happy, but gladly ordered a full plate when the waitress came over. 

Talk was nonexistent. Since Damian had one of those colouring mats he didn't even mutter until his meat plenty breakfast was slid over the top. 

Food, at least, was something to focus on instead of the silence. Yet Jason had always been a fast eater. It was something he'd learned young so he wouldn't be caught by Willis late at night, or his mom when she was high off her head looking for someone to pawn off to her drug dealers.

Other him seemed to have the same upbringing since their forks clattered to their plates at the same time. They even sat back the same, and the tilt to see just how much Damian had left was disturbing to say the least. This whole double thing just wasn't sitting right with him. He didn't know what to say. After last night there wasn't much else to say. Father Todd wasn't some lovestruck fool waiting to take Richard back the moment he showed his pretty face. He didn't need Jason to give him the rants he'd been saving up just to pose to his double's face. He didn't even need to listen to Jason's story since, apparently, he'd lived, or recalled, those memories when he'd been merged in Jason's body.

It had been awkward, really, ever since they woke up. After their little heart to heart the night before in true Jason fashion neither of them wanted to think about what they'd let loose. They didn't want to confront it, didn't even want to look at the pile of truths that had been laid out before them. Since if Jason did, just him, not even delving into what Father Todd thought about Jason, but if Jason thought about last night, if he wanted to ask more questions then he would probably be listening to more crap he thought he'd put long behind him when Bruce took him in. He didn't want to think about some other him being touched- he just- he didn't. Especially when a Drake of all people was behind it. It stirred something unpleasant in him that he couldn't think about if he wanted to get them to Star City in good time.

So Jason had let the silence build and build. He'd let Father Todd do what he had to do with Damian in the car, and cranked up the old tunes this awful world had to offer. All in all, it had been serving them both well. Until now, sitting there in some crappy diner waiting for Damian to finish off a breakfast that looked to be growing in size instead of shrinking.

He scratched his ear. He did the thoroughest cleaning he'd ever performed on that ear as he sought out what to say, or even if he should say something. Reassuring Father Todd about Thomas not minding them using his bank card here was probably a good topic. One Jason was going to venture down had Father Todd himself not asked, "How many guns do you actually own?"

Jason's eyes flitted to the one on his thigh before the question caught up to him. "A few." He'd never really counted them. All he knew was that he had at least five in every safe house he owned. "I er, need them for work."

"Drug dealing," Father Todd nodded.

"Among other things." Since Jason couldn't really deny that drug dealing was at least part of his underground business. At least, it had been. "Actually, I don't do that anymore. Bruce kind of, forbade, any extremely illicit activity so long as I was living with him." Which was now until Bruce decided he was old enough to go back to his own apartment. 

After this stunt it would be another five years.

"I'm actually in the charity business now." Something he'd forgotten about with all this drama. God he was going to have to go back there after this... Maybe he could fake his death, or a kidnapping, something at least to get him out of that board room. Whatever the case when he got back, his now above board line of work allowed him to say, "Like you," and not feel guilty for lying.

Father Todd quirked a brow, "Charity."

"Helping rape victims. It's a whole Wayne thing," Jason waved off. "The charities don't really help the majority of the problem but, Bruce is happy so, I do it."

"It sounds..."

"Shit? Yeah." He knew he hated it. "Truthfully, I'd rather be doing what you did. You like, go around giving people blankets and stuff right?" He vaguely remembered someone saying that had happened. "I used to do that sometimes as Red Hood, but, my reputation kind of had them running away before I could shove a few cans of food at them."

It had definitely stung when it had been kids that had ran at the sight of him. In part, that was one of the reasons he'd started letting up on his whole purge of Gotham. That and the pit madness fading, but, being feared by people he was trying to help definitely didn't sit right with him. 

He was getting off track. Sitting in front of a priest, even if it was a version of himself, had him shifting about. "What did you want to know about guns for?" There, put the conversation back on Father Todd.

The man certainly seemed to handle being put on the spot easily. With a shrug that was far too familiar for comfort Father Todd said, "Just curious. I've never really liked them myself."

"Willis?" Jason guessed, and it was a good guess at that since Father Todd inclined his head enough for Jason to know he'd been right.

One of the worst memories of Jason's life had been when his father got his gun. He'd come home lording about how he was finally moving up in the world now he had 'protection' for his family. He thought it was some big honour being given a 'company weapon', that it meant he was trusted, relied on, not that every person in Two Face's gang got one the moment they signed their name on the dotted line. 

Before that gun came into their house, the worst Jason would get was a good stomping on. His dad was violent, not stupid. He knew just where he could hurt enough to get away with it, and left the more illicit stuff to the people Catherine would bring home. Out of the two of them, Willis had actually been preferable, until he got that damned gun. Willis was a trigger happy son of a bitch. He'd shoot the damn thing off whenever he could, just because he could, and more than once in a fit of anger Jason had stared down the barrel of that gun knowing, just knowing, that he was one greasy finger away from getting his brains blown out. 

The thing was, it wasn't like Willis was the only guy in their neighbourhood to have a gun, or that Jason had never seen one in his life before Willis brought it to their house. In fact, Jason saw more guns than probably anyone in Wayne Manor had in his childhood alone. No, the thing that got him was the fact that it was in his dad's hands. A guy who Jason knew in and out. These strangers there was always a fifty fifty chance they didn't pull the trigger, or were too scared to. Jason didn't know, nor did he care. But he knew his dad, and he knew, if anyone in the world shouldn't have been given a weapon capable of grazing Jason's knee after one too many drinks it was Willis Todd.

He was lucky a graze was the only thing to come out of Willis' short time with that gun. 

He shook off the memories of that man just as he forced himself to set his hands back on the table. "Guns are easier," He said, knowing himself that after all this time even he wasn't completely comfortable using a gun. "Long range, short, take your pick they're adaptable. Much easier to get your hands on than a katana anyway."

"Or a knife," Father Todd said, surprising Jason with a slight eye roll. "I took Damian to get a few new kitchen supplies for our move. It was harder buying a knife to cut our meat than it was for the man a few aisles over to buy a gun."

"Tell me about it." The amount of times Jason had been ID'd over knives were astounding. 

They shared a laugh, and their diner visit was appeased with talk of mundane things like the different prices of food for the same stores in both universes.

It was nice, sitting there, pretending that this was the sole reason Jason was here. Just to see his double, to know him. It definitely calmed his nerves enough that when Damian started singing when they buckled him back into his car seat Jason even joined in the first few verses.

He tried not to think when the brat dropped off. It shouldn't have been too hard an endeavour, he had the road to concentrate on after all. But, Father Todd wasn't exactly chatty right now, his head thunked on the window and making Jason question whether he indeed shuffled like he was having a seizure in his sleep. With no one to talk to, and the road being nothing but a straight line for  _so long_ now, Jason was starting to get thoughts intercepting the directions he knew by heart.

Thoughts like what was going on back at the manor. Thoughts about Thomas being left alone with two demons who were possessing the bodies of Jason's family. Two demons who, at this very moment, could be conning their way into Thomas' home and- God knows what they're doing. Father Todd said they had been fighting. After the stunt demon Bruce pulled sending Richard into Jason's universe he doubted that fight was in the kiss and make up stage right now. Which meant that anything could be happening. 

His fingers twitched, the dial on the radio becoming more and more tempting the longer he sat there. 

He kept them on the wheel.

It wasn't like he would be getting Gotham's news this far out. Even if he did, the most he would probably hear would be about the massacre at whatever dorm they had toppled out of. There wouldn't be anything about demons. Apparently demons knew how to keep a low profile- shocker. They wouldn't court the news unless they had something truly devious on their minds. 

So Jason didn't think. He just drove and reminded himself that their limit was up. Tim was here now, and with him the entire Justice League or whoever had stupidly been put on monitor duty when Tim came a calling for super heroes.

They had to pull over and switch when the sun set. Jason just, he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. After a near sleepless night and many sleepless nights before that the idea of curling up next to Damian and his cats was looking very tempting. Since the kid didn't wake when they switched seats Jason was even more at ease in closing his eyes and letting exhaustion take him away.

His dreams were a terrifyingly soothing nothingness. The hours flew by them and Jason slept on, still nothing but that eternal darkness before his eyes.

It was because he was too exhausted to dream that first alerted him there was something wrong. The light that moved across his eyes was too animated to be of his own making.

"Dami-an?" Jason hoped, his brows drawing when his words wouldn't come out how he wanted them. It only got worse when his brow itself sent off a pang that certainly wasn't normal.

He felt... he didn't know how he felt, and that familiar confused disjointed feeling sent rivulets of fear to his brain. Or, it would have had it been able to break free of this confused daze.

He remembered, distantly, the last time this had happened. He'd woken up then too, forgetting when exactly it had been that he'd fallen asleep. There had been a light, a constant one, not like this firefly that dipped and dove in and out his vision. That light had stayed put, and grown stronger when the breath finally left his body and he'd caught his last gaze at Bruce.

He wasn't dying this time. At least, he hoped not. With every second he focused on not panicking he realised that he could focus, the blood wasn't that drained from his body. Pain was starting to set in too, and with it clarity as he found that light again and placed it as a torch.

"Here!" Jason choked out, trying again and again until his "Here!" Was heard.

The torch stayed still, and as the minutes dragged so did the seat Jason was attached to. Car accident then. That was good. That meant there were people around them, witnesses, and a demon would have to be stupid to hang around.

Stupid or desperate Jason would come to know.

The digging him out felt like it took hours. He didn't really remember most of it, just the fact that every second that passed he could feel his blood growing thinner and thinner as it exited his body.

Sharp pain of someone wrapping- his leg?- his leg to stem the blood brought him to the crowd surrounding him. Curiosity was on none of their faces, just resignation and maybe a bit of worry as those in the cars behind got our and joined the throng. 

It must have been something serious if no one was directing traffic. Serious enough for Damian, Jason hoped, to use whatever demon powers he had to zap himself and Father Todd away from the car.

Or maybe Damian had been behind it. A kid that had been brought up with Dick he would have been more loyal to the demon than to Father Todd. Maybe he had some kind of delayed orders. The car crash might have been a way to get rid of Jason. Jason and his crazy words that would upset whatever dynamic Damian had been promised. Demon Damian may be but he was also a kid, and as a kid Jason knew he would have done anything to keep his parents together, as shitty as they were. Namely because the unknown, what happened when both of them were gone was terrifying to a Jason that hadn't faced that reality yet.

A convoluted theory it may have been, Jason agreed, but one that haunted him the whole ambulance ride. Especially when, as he was being lifted into the ambulance he caught a glimpse of his car mates. Damian glowering, unscathed and with one hand in Father Todd's and the other in Richard's.

"Fucking traitor." Was his last thought before something was forcefully injected into his bloodstream and the world went black.

He woke to a familiar face looming over him and, fulfilling some desire he'd had locked up inside him since coming to this hellish universe, he punched Tim right in the nose.

"Aghck." He fell like the skinny twink he was. "I thought we were past this!"

Jason huffed, more because he was trying to sit up with his leg hanging in the air. "Where the hell have you been? Where the hell am I? Where's Bruce?" Thomas? Dick? Superman since he was supposed to be here too.

Tim, after he'd lifted himself up and to a safe distance, rattled off, "You're in Gotham general. Home. I've been cleaning up your mess and Bruce is..." Tim deflated. "Bruce is at the manor. Things have been difficult."

Home. Meanig his universe. Meaning away from Father Todd. "You'd better catch me up kid because I am about three minutes from blowing this hellhole, going to ground and starting my revenge plan again and trust me I won't settle for just kidnapping you this time."

"When have you ever?" Tim sighed, taking up the seat he must have been in when Jason was knocked out. "Okay so, first things first, Constantine's been doing a sort of liason between the two worlds for a while now. Way before we even knew the two worlds were separate again."


	12. Chapter 12

"And then I had to do a search for morons matching your description. Luckily, they registered you with the hospital and the local police or it would've been much harder," Tim rattled, as he had been for the last, oh, hour or so. "And now we're here."

"Great," Jason said. He didn't get a few things in that explanation. Like just why Tim had to search for him instead of getting Superman to just, hear Jason's dying body or something. Nor just how they managed to ditch three demons, lose Father Todd and somehow call it a day and retreat home, but, well, Jason was home and, he wasn't completely sad about not having to think about demons again. Again however, the point was that this was Jason, he could just put that in a little box and never think about it again. The others? Bruce with his martyr complex. Dick with his martyr complex. Tim... well, him too, Jason thinking the only one that didn't in this family was Damian, and that was because he was still young enough not to grasp a lot of grown up emotions yet.

Nevertheless, his butt was starting to itch and Jason was glad to call it a day. If only because he had a more pressing matter to attend to right now. Like getting out of this ward. God he hated hospitals.

Tim leaned a bit closer, arms resting on the bed, then his head when Jason didn't hit him again. "What happened anyway?"

He felt one of his brows raise before recognition passed through him. For once, he knew more than Tim, and the reasons why nagged him as he gave a soft shrug. "You know, demonic possession, car crash, I'm surprised Bruce didn't fill you in."

"Well I told you, he's been a bit," Tim made a so-so gesture, which, in reference to Bruce could mean completely fine or trashing the batcave in some diva fit. "And Dick's been even worse. He won't even let Alfred in his room."

That was bad. 

Jason sighed back onto his pillow, realising belatedly it was one of the hospitals from feel alone. Urgh he hated hospitals. Hate. Hate. Hate. 

Tim cleared his throat like Jason could forget he was there. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well...?" Tim waited a beat before snapping, "What happened. You still haven't told me."

"Tim," Jason sighed, "I'm gonna be honest, it's been a trying few days, I've just woke up and I'm gonna need a minute before dealing with you and your questions."

He knew the kid would get riled up, and while that had been some of what Jason was going for- because he seriously had a problem with annoying Tim- he also actually was bone tired. But not the kind he would have expected. The hospital must have been holding out on the good stuff.

He dozed for what felt like a blink before he was opening his eyes to a nurse changing out his IV. The room was darker, and Tim had moved from the bed to the two chairs, stretching himself out between them for a nap.

"So sweet," the nurse said, following Jason's gaze to Tim. "He hasn't left your side since you were brought in."

Jason blinked long and lazy at her, as if willing time to pass quickly again. When it didn't and the nurse was still in his room Jason hummed and shuffled up straight again. "How long do you think I'm gonna be in here for?" He didn't feel too bad actually. Not for being flipped over in a car anyway.

The nurse didn't give a real answer, but nor was Jason expecting one as she gave the usual, "We'll have to see what the doctors say." Then moved on to tucking in his bedsheet.

Sensing a dead end, Jason moved the conversation back onto Tim, him at least she had showed an interest in talking about. "He left the room at all?"

The nurse shook her head, "One of the other girls bring him food. Poor thing was so worried."

"Really?" 

The nurse nodded, "Of course. You've got a nice family there Jason."

"Oh I know." 

He watched her fiddle about, checking his chart and the refilling the jug of water at his bedside. With a few lingering looks more she was gone, and Jason was alone once more.

He waited a few beats when the door snicked shut before slowly putting weight on the leg off the bed. "Moron," he said, swinging it down and pouncing on Tim before the kid could think of sitting up. "You're a real idiot you know that?"

He tightened his hands around the kids throat. A breathy "Jason?" Telling him he had the rooms attention.

"You know that old saying, 'fool me once?' Well twice is shame on you pal. Seriously? A car accident? Tim? This wouldn't have worked even if this was the first time you dream jacked me." He tightened his hold on Tim, enough for the kids face to start turning red.

The demon was committed, Jason gave him that much as he begged a while longer in Tim's voice before changing the scene before Jason's eyes. No hospital, no Tim, just him and Richard in a blank space. He wasn't looking too happy, so whatever reunion Bruce and Richard had didn't go too well. Good. 

"You're real stubborn you know that?" Richard huffed. 

"And you're real stupid if you thought that would actually work. I mean, you had me going for a while, but, you gotta actually keep the continuity if you want it to be believable. My leg didn't even hurt, those drugs didn't take my clarity. I know what drugs feel like, especially hospital drugs, they gotta up the dosage so much that I'm practically passed out most of the time. And a hospital? Boy you've not been paying attention at all to our world. Bruce is the biggest control freak I know. There's no way he would even think the word hospital for someone so minor as a car crash." There was more, and Jason would have rubbed it in the demon's face had he not sensed things about to get hostile. He didn't know what it was, Father Todd potentially getting nearer this sanctuary or Jason destroying his whole undercover operation, but the demon wasn't looking so patient anymore. "I'm not telling you where they are."

"I don't need you to," Richard spat. "I just need you out of the way."

"Bullshit." He proved in Jason's not dream how easy it would be to separate him from Father Todd. He also showed his hand too, "You weren't asking what happened for nothing. I may not be the world's greatest detective but he damn well taught me a thing or two about putting clues together. You don't know where we are. Where we're going. But you know that if we get there you aren't going to be able to break in."

"I have your brother," Richard said.

Hostage situation. Easy to play out. "I have Bruce's kid, and your Jason. You really wanna do this?"

There was a little bit of fire in Richard's eyes. "Just tell me where you are."

"Nope." He had the power here. The knowledge. The will even to do whatever he could so long as at least one Jason was safe from this monster. "You can keep me trapped inside my own mind for as long as you want and I still won't tell you where they are."

Richard's jaw tightened, which made Jason wonder if there was another clock ticking down on Richard's end. Jason didn't know what happened to Bruce after all. Demon Bruce. He was as much a wild card as any. Nevertheless when Richard demanded, "Tell me."

Jason hadn't been expecting the pained look that crossed Richard's face when Jason next said no.

"I don't-" The demon's face twisted, settling into that doe eyed look he'd used on Jason when they first met. It was carefully blank, as if Jason's reaction was what would have him continuing or abandoning this path he was walking down on. "I don't have to have your permission," Richard settled on, and in a blink he was gone.

Damian's god knew what round of 'they'll be coming 'round the mountain' alerted him to waking, truly waking. There was a cat on his lap, and Damian's feet kicking the glove box in time with his song, all of it a bit disorienting for a moment as Jason backtracked away from the car crash to where they would be on the road.

It was light. Early dawn, and all around him Jason saw stores and buildings that could only be in Star City. Father Todd was slumped over the wheel, rhythmically checking the mirror above him, and just that sigh of relief at seeing Jason blink back at him told Jason they had made it. Some of the way anyway.

"Thought you were dead," Father Todd murmured. "Couldn't wake you."

"Demon," Jason explained, sorting through the demon's last comment to him before he got it. "Pull over."

They switched seats as fast as Jason was able. He didn't even care that he was sitting next to Damian now as he sped off down any which way he could. 

"You're gonna have to tell me what this safe house looks like. We don't have much time." If the demon was in his head, in his dreams, it wasn't that far of a stretch to think he could got bit father and look in Jason's thoughts. It was how he'd pretended to be Dick, picking and choosing as he went along with the facade. It was how demon Bruce pulled off his stunt of locking Jason away. While Jason didn't want to dwell on the hesitation the demon had shown up until now of just demanding what he wanted from Jason, taking it with force like he'd done everything else, they had a more pressing issue. That being that the demon didn't need a car to transport himself, and if he knew they were heading to Star City then Richard was already here. "Actually, scrap that, just shout when you see it." 

The only saving grace Jason could find was that he didn't know what this safe house was. Where it was even. Only Father Todd knew that, and since Father Todd had been awake, he wasn't likely to be spilling that information to Richard. Damian... well, Damian he wasn't too sure wasn't working for Richard. Chances were that he might have been, he certainly didn't help shield Jason from that horror show he'd just had. But then, maybe Damian didn't know how. As much as he looked and acted like Jason's Damian back home this one was remarkably more innocent, more childlike in his words and actions. Maybe Damian was just as in the dark as Jason when it came to how demons' powers worked. He certainly wasn't volunteering information about them.

They drove around the streets wildly enough that most cars knew well in advance to keep out of their way. The people too. The only ones that even gave half a chase were the SCPD, and they gave up after a while too. It was just the way with places like Star and Gotham. Add in the apocalypse, and there was a whole host of more important matters to see to than some wild driver that, so far, hadn't actually hit anyone.

Nor would he. Jason was an excellent driver. Better than Bruce by far. The amount of times Jason had to cling to his seat to stop himself from hitting his head as Robin was astounding. Especially since, as Jason looked back, his other self hadn't reached for a hold or secured the cats thus far.

They were on the road for an hour before Father Todd told him to stop. Unbuckling his belt, and Damian's when the kid just sat there and demanded Jason do it, they took off as fast as they could through paths Father Todd couldn't possibly have known about without those shining arrows pointing them. Thank God for Constantine, Jason thought as they rounded the corner. Only he would think far ahead enough to know that, a home bird like Jason, wouldn't have travelled far in his short life, and only he had the skills, save the other magic users who thus far were useless to Jason since they weren't involved in this mess, to magic some arrows so they would know the way.

The arrows led them down three alleys before they came to something resembling a door. Jason was expecting some epic showdown. Maybe Richard would pop up, do battle with Constantine who was maybe hiding somewhere and half of Star City would be levelled. He thought Father Todd would hesitate maybe, and Jason would end up having to carry the man over the threshold. Hell, he even thought Damian might have second thoughts about leaving his father and Richard to fend for themselves.

But, no, nothing happened. 

They got to the other end of the street no problem, the door opened and in Father Todd, Damian and their many cats went. Since Jason couldn't see the other side he thought they were fine, and when the door closed there was some magic glowing action that made it disappear. 

Jason checked the wall a few times, he even shot it to make sure it was truly gone before slumping to the ground and just, relaxing. 

Shit was probably still going down in Gotham, shit always went down there. But at least here Jason had managed to do something. He got Father Todd out of this mess. Better, he gave the man to Constantine, who, out of everyone, would be able to teach Jason how to rear a half demon into a half decent citizen. So he took a breath. Then another, and when his body finally calmed down he picked himself up and trudged back to the car. 

Superman had to be here by now. If he wasn't busy trying to set this world right he would find Jason sooner or later. If not, Jason knew his way back to Gotham, and this time he wouldn't have to be judged for every tab he opened or loaf of bread he stole. 

The drive was long. Harrowing too since Jason's nerves got the better of him a few times. But he managed to make it a full day and a half without another passenger next to him. When Richard did come, Jason didn't think he'd be as shocked by the red rims around Richard's eyes as he was. He didn't know demons could cry, but the image Richard presented definitely seemed like they were able to. That, or he was pulling on Jason's heartstrings. There was only one of them around now after all. 

"He was looking for me," Richard said. "I know he was."

Doing this civilly then. Okay, Jason could work with that. It certainly was better than being bent over and sleeping for three days. "Might have been at first but that horror show with the blood and Mirror Master was all Bruce."

Richard's lip curled, that at least he had in common with Dick. "He was still looking for me."

"Whatever." Jason rolled his eyes, concentrating on the road. "He still ran from you anyway. Could have stopped. Could have knocked me out or thrown me out the car and found you but he didn't. Tells you something doesn't it."

He heard more than saw the dashboard being dented as Dick screamed, "He was looking for me!" That temper Jason had always been wary about with his own brother finally rearing its head. He'd always wondered if the demon worked up to his rage like Dick did. He certainly had never shown Jason true anger in their time together. Guess now he had his answer, and who would have thought it was some dumb priest wearing Jason's face that built him up to it. Actually, that kind of made sense. All Jason's across all universes seemed to have that special power to send someone in their family over the edge. 

"So what if he was looking for you-"

"You!" Dick seethed, "You and Bruce, you didn't even let me-"

"What?" Jason demanded, "Speak to him? You think you had that right?"

"He wanted-"

"He wanted nothing but to get away from you." He pulled over before he actually crashed the car. "I don't think anyone's actually spelled it out for you before, so I'm gonna do it. You deserve nothing. Your actions, how you got here, what you've done, and not just to me, they aren't some by product of ill fortune. You chose this route. You did those things. Now I'm no saint, I've killed people, but I've damn well accepted that I'm not going anywhere nice when I finally pop it. I know what consequences my actions have, and I live with them and accept them because I deserve it."

Every beating. Every family dinner he hadn't been invited to. Every time one of his family members disowned his very name when it was spoken he'd accepted it. He knew none of them would condone his actions. He didn't want them to. Not really. He never blamed it on anything else either. He didn't blame his bad upbringing. Or Bruce's parenting. He may have said those things to hurt other people, but Jason did what he did, he'd killed those people because he'd thought it was right. Still thought it was right. He felt no remorse for what he did, and that was what differed between Jason and Richard. Richard wanted both sides. He wanted to still do what he does, still kill people, and rape people, he wanted to go out every night and suck some dry and come home to Father Todd's accepting arms. He wanted a fantasy that he, and every other dirty abuser thinks they can have.

"You know, even if he did talk to you, even if he accepted you were sorry, let you back in, it wouldn't last. You were on thin ice the moment you met him, and while then you may have been able to bat your eyelashes and he would forgive it, he finally sees you for what you are Dick. You're evil. Plain and simple. You can sit there and cry all you like but it doesn't change what you are, and I for one am glad I never have to see your face again when I leave this hell hole of a universe."

He started the car again, hands on the wheel when Richard leaned over, his grip near painful as he begged, "What do I do? Tell me what to do."

"Do?"

"I don't wanna-" Richard struggled over, "I don't want to be like this. Please, you have to tell me what to do. How I can-"

Jason remembered what Father Todd had said, what Richard, even had told him, about a fall, about Bruce, this universe's Bruce, making fun of his wings when they were mangled and torn. Maybe somewhere, deep down, Richard meant what he was saying. But, "You chose to fall Dickface. That's not my fault, and I ain't fixing your mistakes. So get out. I'm done with you." He leaned over and opened the door, surprised when it actually worked, Richard hiccuping a bit more before climbing out.

It was all an act, this part. Richard standing on the road where Jason left him, hoping Jason would turn around and invite him back in. Richard didn't need to stand there and look sad. Not if he really wanted Jason. If he was that desperate he would just take Jason and keep him where not even Clark could find him. 

That was what Jason told himself anyway as he sped down the motorway towards Metropolis.

Superman, eventually, picked Jason up. 

Three in the morning to be exact. Gave Jason a near heart attack as he knocked on the car window Jason was trying to sleep in, his big friendly face beaming in, hand waving like something right out of a horror movie. Jason was just glad Clark was bullet proof, even if he spent the hour or so it took to fly back to Gotham listening to what would have happened if Clark hadn't have been.

"All I'm saying is it's dangerous to be carrying a loaded weapon. Why don't you just start with batarangs again. I'm sure Bruce would be more than happy to let you use them." All the damn way. Never mind that Jason could still nick an artery with a batarang.

They landed in the manor's back garden. Tim and Kon were making googly eyes at each other, which meant there wasn't any danger. Although, when Bruce hobbled out the manor to see them Jason didn't rush forward to give his own hello.

"You sure you're you B?" Jason asked.

"It's him," Thomas said, coming up on Bruce's left. "Trust me, it's him." 

As if Jason needed more proof, Bruce edged down part of the borrowed shirt he had to show Jason some kind of symbol carved into his chest. "Zatana did it as soon as her and Constantine landed."

"Dick got one?" He seriously needed to know that, and thankfully Bruce nodded.

"Tim too. And Damian. We're getting them tattooed as soon as we get home."

"Smart."

Should have thought of that months ago. 


	13. Chapter 13

Jason had never been happier to be back in his own room than he was when he got home. Alfred had dinner mostly sorted, and Damian kept the pets from full on smothering them. It was good. It was more than good it was great. They'd won. They'd really won.

Kind of. 

Which was a hard thing to achieve in their line of work, so Jason was counting the win as much as he could since, well, there were a few loose ends even the most powerful among them couldn't fix. Like the war between Atlantis and the rest of the world. Superman's, or, other Superman's, destruction of Metropolis. Gotham. The demons. They could be there for the rest of their lives and nothing would have changed what happened. They'd tried before, to change a universe's path. But, the thing about parallel universes was that they ran parallel but not on the same course. They could stop Superman, Wonder Woman and god knows what else and somehow, someway, when they went back to their own world the changes they had made would slowly unravel. 

Bruce once told Jason, when he'd been a plucky Robin of fourteen and reeling off the fact that his new dad got to go to other worlds, that they went to this one world once where Bruce had a brother, and he was the one that survived that night. He told Jason about how bad this guy was, and how Bruce did everything he could, they all did, to help this world go to rights. They succeeded too. They imprisoned the bad guys, de-powered that Superguy and then left, hoping that world would stay on the track the JL had left it. 

Well, eight years down the line and Jason still heard whispers of Owlman every now and then when Bruce came home from a JL meeting. That world's course needed those bad guys on it. Call it fate or whatever, but it didn't operate right without them, and so changed the very nature of that world again, undid whatever Bruce and the JL did to set it to rights.

The same would have happened if they interfered with this new world. Yes, the whole point of them going over there was to stop the demon's, but the difference between this instance and what the JL had done before was that they had Thomas on their side. Thomas who was already on track to trying to sort his son out. If he hadn't have been, if they had went above Thomas' head and hoped for the best, then their work would have unravelled. Right now, Thomas wasn't hunting demon Bruce down because Jason and his universe told him to, but because he'd discovered it for himself and set his own path towards the same goals Jason's. Just like, it wasn't Jason that told Father Todd to run. He did so himself. Him and Constantine, but Jason trusted Constantine to already be familiar with the tricks of whatever magic a universe had. He trusted that Father Todd would be safe.

He had to. 

But the rest of it? Interfering? It would do nothing. Diana would break out of whatever prison they put her in eventually. The same with Arthur. They would go back to war, Gotham would still be a shithole and nothing would have eventually changed. 

So they trudged home with the good news they did have. That, even if they didn't save the world, they had saved Father Todd, and, more importantly, Jason.

He could definitely greet his pillow like a lost lover now he knew, and had the implicit promise from both Barry and Constantine that demon Dick wasn't going to be following them back through the cosmic treadmill into their world. Jason was safe. Richard was trapped. So Jason got a good night's sleep for once, and when morning came he went to go pester Tim out of bed, the two of them yawning in front of Bruce's big mirror as they waited for the go ahead to go to work.

"Alfred said no," Jason reminded Bruce when he saw one pale foot try to sneakily climb out of bed. "You're on bed rest until you stop popping blood every time you move."

The foot slowly slid back in, Jason giving Tim a harsh shove when the kid tottered dangerously close to Jason's side of the mirror.

There was another reason Bruce was on bed rest. Namely that he hadn't took the news of Thomas Wayne bidding them goodbye too well. It wasn't surprising. Bruce was basically saying goodbye to his father. Going back to his status as original Wayne orphan. But, Jason had told Damian when the kid asked last night what was wrong, at least Bruce got a goodbye this time. It was more than anyone ever got with someone they weren't going to see again.

Still, it wasn't nice at all to think about what Bruce was feeling right now, so Jason did his best to keep the others occupied and Bruce in bed. Especially, a week back in his own world, Jason caught sight of something Bruce would definitely not be able to handle just yet.

"It is a gift Todd!" Damian screeched, clinging onto his end of his sketchbook as best his little claws could.

"I don't care, give it!"

He yanked it closer, flicking his foot out. The kid didn't even flinch at Jason's bluff, just held on that much tighter and gave his own substantial pull. 

He ended up having to actually push Damian off the book, running before the kid got his feet back under him. He didn't need to outrun Damian, as fast as Jason knew he was, he also knew Damian was determined enough to start flinging knives that would doubtless slow Jason down eventually. So he knew running wasn't the aim. No, the aim was to reach Tim's pit he slept in, which, thankfully, wasn't even a hallway away. 

He shut the door behind him, half wishing he hadn't when he locked eyes with Tim. 

"Get out!" Tim screamed, covers pulled to his neck now he had company.

"Seriously Timmy?" 

"Out! Out!" Tim started flinging things, Jason dodging them as he sent his gaze skyward. "What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know how to knock?"

"This isn't pleasant for me either Tim." Something slimy splattered on Jason's face. Slimy enough to make him sneak a peak in case it was, well, Tim stained. Unfortunately, getting a look at some kind of slime thing Jason saw them selling in shops these days meant he wasn't paying attention to Tim's naked temper tantrum. His mistake. One he payed for with a shoe to the skull. "Ow you dick. For crying out loud I'm leaving if you just give me a-" The door budged, Jason pushing it shut with his butt. Damian let out a howl behind it, the next shove pushing Jason a good way forward before he slammed it shut and avoided the other shoe Tim threw. 

"Out!" Tim still screeched, even more panicked now he heard Damian trying to break in too. "Out! Out!"

Making a split decision, Jason tossed the sketchbook into Tim's wardrobe, holding on for a moment longer before letting the door fall forward and grabbing Damian before the kid could get an eyeful. "Give it back!" Damian screamed, his pitch joining Tim's as he fought against Jason's hold. "It's mine. Father said so and father gave it to me so you'd better-"

"Out for fuck's sake Jason I swear-"

He flung Damian out, following after and sacrificing his good looks as he accepted the quick foot to the face. Things went a little blurry as Damian searched him, not blurry enough however for Jason to have lost his faculties.

Pushing the kid off, he took flight once more, Tim's, "I hate this house!" following after him as he led Damian to the lower floors and eventually out into the manor gardens. 

Alfred was the one to drag them in. Hosing them down against the patio he gave both of them his best disappointed look, aiming the hose at their faces more than their bodies in cold unfair punishment. The mud took twice as long to get off that way, and even then they were just getting the first coat off. "I hope you two have learned your lesson about rolling around in the manor grounds."

"We weren't doing it for the fun of it Pennyworth," Damian huffed. "Todd stole my sketchbook and won't give it back."

Jason rolled his eyes, "I told you kid, I lost it on the way down here. Maybe it you weren't so busy trying to kick my head in you would have seen it as you pranced down here."

"I don't prance." Like doing so was a sin itself. 

"Er, pretty sure you do Dami."

"Damian," Damian insisted. "Not that you even deserve that privilege Todd." He caught up with Alfred where the man was walking ahead to hopefully keep out of it and start their baths. "Pennyworth, I demand you tell Todd to give my sketchbook back. It's my property."

" _It's my property,_ " Jason falsetto-ed. 

"Pennyworth!" Damian snapped.

Alfred didn't even sigh, just walked that little bit faster. 

He made Jason stay as he ran Damian's bath. Naturally, even if Jason was old enough to live on his own, independent from both Bruce and Alfred, he wasn't strong enough to say no when Alfred ordered him to stay there so Alfred could make sure he wouldn't track mud everywhere. Punishment it may be having to hear Damian whine a bit longer, but Jason did learn some good things standing there. Like the demon brat liked bubbles when he took a bath. A wind up shark too that Jason was tempted to steal for himself too.

Adorable.

"I trust I won't need to inspect you Master Damian?" 

Damian sneered at the very idea, shooing them off with one last glare. The last thing Jason saw was Damian's scarred back before Alfred started them on their way to Jason's room.

"Must you aggravate them?" Alfred sighed, finally as Jason's door came in sight. He'd been talking to Tim too then.

"In my defence, I didn't know Tim was having alone time. I mean, I'm not surprised, but I wasn't expecting it." 

Alfred levelled a glare back at him. 

Jason slumped against his bathroom door, "Look, Damian thought it would be a good idea to give Bruce these sketches he'd done of Thomas. Of him and Thomas actually. I just... Bruce doesn't need to see that right now. I know he'll appreciate it but, the wound's still bleeding, and Damian doesn't have tact when it comes to these things."

"So you thought stealing his sketchbook was the best choice?" Good old Alfred. Always there to make Jason feel like crap for his split second decisions.

"I was going to talk to him, but he doesn't listen to me. You know he doesn't."

"And how would either of us know that Master Jason?" He had a point and he knew it. Even if Jason wanted to bring up occasions where Damian completely ignored him he couldn't because... well, because Jason doesn't really talk to Damian. "Perhaps after you've scrubbed the roses from your hair you can attempt to smooth the way with your brothers. You never know, they may just listen to you."

He huffed, both of them knowing Jason was going to do what he said. "We must look so tiny from that high horse you're always on Alfie."

"Minuscule," Alfred agreed wandering off for a few minutes before returning with a packaged wind up crocodile. "I saw you eyeing Master Damian's."

"Not my fault he has cool toys."

He watched the crock whip its tail around for a full hour before dragging himself out his bath and doing what Alfred suggested. Tim was a lost cause. Best thing to do in that kind of situation was just to pretend it never happened. Tim would be a bit red in the face for a few weeks, but eventually they would forget about it. 

It was better then Jason making a commentary about Tim's choice of porn anyway.

Damian on the other hand, after grabbing his sketchbook from Tim's, vacated, room, well, he might be open to negotiation. "Here kid," he slid the book between them.

Damian snatched it like it was the last knife on the table. "You may leave."

"Hang on," Jason said, grabbing Damian's hoodie as the kid tried to leave. "Dami wait, okay, this is important."

"If it's about the sketches then I know," Damian said, back still to Jason. "I heard you and Pennyworth talking."

"What?" The kid was stripping, he was taking a bath how did Jason not at least hear his dainty feet on the carpet?

"I thought you may reveal where you hid my sketchbook."

Made sense. 

Damian turned, so fast Jason accidentally hit the kid with the new change in position. "I'm not stupid you know," and oh, this was eerily similar to another conversation Jason had with a kid named Damian.

"I never said you were," Jason said.

"But you think I am," Damian insisted. His face pinched into that pug like scowl, "I wasn't going to give it to father right now. It's not even finished. I just wanted to know whether you thought he would appreciate it framed."

He read between the lines and felt like the worst kind of dick. Of course Damian wasn't going to give it to Bruce like now. The kid struggled with social situations, but even he knew when Bruce could handle something like a framed sketch of his alternate universe father. "Damian, I don't think you're stupid," he told the kid. It was important he knew that, especially at his age. "I don't," he reiterated. "I just panicked and, well, you know I'm not the best with decision making. If anyone's stupid it's me."

Damian narrowed his eyes, "Why are you being kind?"

"Because." Jason sighed, trying again, "Because I'm your brother, and it looks like I'm stuck living with you for a while so we'd better learn to get along, don't you think?"

Damian considered that for a moment. "I've done well so far without your alliance."

He wasn't saying no, which Jason took for a good sign. Clapping the kid on the shoulder, he pulled himself up, pushing them both towards Damian's door, it was almost supper time. "Just think though, with me and you on the same side, Tim's gonna be in hell."

"I suppose..."

It wasn't the start of a beautiful friendship, but him and Damian were on speaking terms at least. Enough that, when Dick was gone, as he was most days now they were back in their own universe, Damian came seeking Jason's company instead of sitting on his own. Mostly they just sat in the same room doing their own things, but, every now and then, usually when Jason was training in the gym, Damian would look up from his sketchbook or script and say something like, "Mother taught me that too," and eventually showed Jason just how much he'd slipped up in his training.

"He's gone again," Tim said, perching himself on Damian's window to look out the front. No doubt Dick was riding off on his bike again, going God knows where. 

"And?" Jason prompted.

"And," Tim parroted. "Don't you think it's weird? Where does he go?"

"Away," Jason guessed, getting a dark look from both kids for that. He rolled his eyes, "He's stir crazy. He's still not fighting fit, and since Bruce is on bedrest he can't get cleared to do any heavy training. He's probably gone out to the gym, or, hell, for a ride. I know I would be out there if I could be."

Tim arched a brow at him, "There's nothing stopping you."

"Isn't there?" They both knew just who was keeping Bruce bedridden right now. If Jason travelled farther than the manor Bruce would be out of bed and tracking Jason down. He knew because the other day Bruce had woke up from some kind of nightmare and scared the living daylights out of Jason when he was in the library. Since then Jason sends him hourly snapchats, making sure some part of the manor was recognisable in them for Bruce's peace of mind. 

He was also the only one of them that was allowed in the kitchen without adult supervision. Alfred was on Bruce watch almost every second, which meant someone had to make the younglings their food. Jason was just thankful Cass was capable enough to look after Gotham otherwise they really would have had a problem keeping Bruce in bed.

"I'll go out at some point," Jason said when Tim still just looked at him. "Just, not right now."

Dick started leaving the manor earlier and earlier. Jason thought it was because of the manor, the darkness that was trapped inside it. Jason jumped at shadows sometimes, and he hadn't been possessed. Dick, who'd had his body invaded for a second time, couldn't have been comfortable being trapped here, wasting his life away. 

Work was work, which meant it was boring. With the power to fire people now at his disposal, Jason found his job made somewhat easier. But he still got challenged almost every step of the way. So much so that one day, instead of driving them straight back to the manor, where Bruce was probably timing their drive back to make sure they were alright, he took them further downtown.

Tim was a brave kid, Jason gave him that. As soon as he saw the change in their usual route he huffed a brief, "Better not be trying to kill me," before going back to whatever game he was playing on his phone. 

"There are easier ways to do it than driving you downtown." He pulled into the nearest drive thru, ordering a bunch of gift cards before saying, "Could just pull up your search history in front of your Titan friends. I'm sure the embarrassment alone would drive you to kill yourself. Makes my job easier."

He got slapped for that.

They pulled into the mall after their stop at the drive thru, and after that the scourge of Gotham itself. He saw the kids, giving a brief whistle and wave to draw them closer. They recognised him. Maybe not as Jason Todd Wayne, but they certainly knew him from his Red Hood days. 

He was careful in handing out the food vouchers. What people got wrong was giving kids like this vouchers for grocers. Kids didn't know what to get for themselves to live on. As much as they think they did, they didn't. Kids like these, like Jason had been, knew what was easy and what tasted nice. They didn't have time to cook tasty, healthy, fulfilling meals before their abusive fathers came home or their mom's sent them on the streets. All they had time for was a sandwich or a pot of instant noodles. The best thing, therefore, was to give them vouchers for somewhere cheap, tasty and would keep them from having to beg for money for a few days.

"Get yourself some new shoes," Jason told them, "Trust me, pants can last years, but if your shoes are too small, you're gonna be the one falling behind when the shots start ringing."

The kids thanked him, which made Jason feel easier when he collapsed back into his car. He went around a few more blocks to do the same. Some kids didn't take the vouchers, they didn't trust him now he had a sullen teen and fancy car behind him. But most did, and had Jason remembering what he'd learned of his other self, that he did this often. Maybe not food vouchers, but blankets definitely for the homeless. 

"Bruce called," Tim told him when he started the car the last time. "He wants to know if you're feeling alright."

"No blips," Jason answered since that was what Bruce would be hinting at if he was tracking either Jason or Tim's phone. "I'm fine."

"I know. I told Bruce you were feeling a little philanthropic today. He's very pleased."

He gave Tim a shove, "Shut up."

They did one last circuit, Jason watching the ladies of the night emerge for their shift. "Your mom really did that huh?"

Jason's followed Tim's gaze to where one of the women was trying to subtly shoo her son away. "Had to make a living."

They pulled onto the street where Father Todd's church lay, Jason giving it a brief glimpse before looking back to the road. Tim, passenger who finally decided real life was more interesting than his phone right now, was the one that lingered, that told Jason, "Wait, stop," The car jerking to a sudden stop. "Is that Dick?"

Jason whipped his head around to see the figure skulking out of Father Todd's church. His hands clenched on the wheel even as Jason recognised the clothes Dick was wearing this morning on the man. "Him or Richard," Jason agreed.

"Zatanna," Tim wet his lips, "Zatanna said she took care of him. That he couldn't come through again."

They shared a look, both of them knowing that just because a magic user said they had done something doesn't mean it was 100% effective. These were demons they were talking about after all. Raven herself didn't conform to some laws of magic because of her demonic heritage. 

Dick, or Richard, hopped on his bike, zipping off down a back street. They kept looking, just in case he doubled back, before Jason started the car again and drove as fast as he could back to the manor. 

Dick's bike wasn't back, but Jason wasn't expecting it to be. Usually, Dick didn't come back until after sundown, he at least able to escape Bruce's tracking insanity. 

"Dami," he shook his keys, Tim sniggering when he added a whistle. It got Ace's attention anyway, Jason giving the pup a big kiss as he called, "Dami!" again. "If you want to get to your rehearsal we gotta go now."

"I thought Cass was taking him," Tim said.

"And I thought Dick was working his frustrations out at a gym. If running errands is the only way I can get out of this place then I'll drive Damian to the zoo and back so long as I can do some stalking." He just, he needed to know. After everything that had happened of late, his mind needed to be put to rest. Who knows, it might have been something completely innocent, like Dick fancying a trip to Father Todd's church to stretch his legs. 

Whatever the case, he wouldn't be sleeping tonight if he didn't find out something today, and it looked like Tim wouldn't either as he told Jason to wait for him. "I just need to change."

"There's nothing wrong with what you have on you freak." Tim took ages to change. Apparently looking like a hobo took hours of work.

Damian clattered down the stairs with narrowed eyes, "Cain is taking me."

"Cain's coming with us," Jason corrected, catching his sister's eye from the banister. "Fancy some ice cream Cass? Beats watching Damian butcher Shakespeare for three hours."

She grinned, scampering after Tim to, no doubt, hurry him into his hobo chic. 

With the car full, and snacks in their laps they drove the short way to Damian's drama class. Waving the kid off, Jason gunned it back to the church they left earlier. 

"So you think Dick is up to something?" Cass guessed once they filled her in. "Or the demon?"

"Don't know," Jason said.

"I just want to have a look around," Tim piped up. He gave a shrug when they looked at him, "I didn't get to the first time around. You guys always leave me out."

"That's because you're no fun," Jason huffed, climbing out the car. "Right, everyone remember where we parked and pray to whatever God there is that it's there when we come back."

The church was still boarded up, and probably would be for a decade to come knowing Gotham's procrastination period. Condemned meant there until it crumbled to dust a natural way in this part of the world. 

He still found himself stepping over phantom toys, but was gratified to see he wasn't the only one freaking out when they did something unexpected. "I take it I've been here in the other world too huh?" Tim asked.

"Did I not fill you in on that?" Jason remembered.

Tim poked his phone light on, "As I remember it, I asked all of you what happened. Bruce was knocked out, Thomas kept repeating something about possession, Dick was having a mental breakdown and you told me to 'piss off until I get a good nights sleep twerp'."

"Oh." Well, maybe that was for the best.

Tim didn't see it that way. "Oh?" He repeated, like the sound was a crime against God. "Are you seriously not going to tell me? You brought it up."

"Er, you did, and, trust me Timmy, I've said a lot of bad things to you over the years, but even I'm reluctant to tell you what happened in that other world. Other you... he's, well, I'm glad I have you, put it that way."

"Thanks?" Tim frowned. He gravitated to the priests inner chambers with an ease that reminded Jason just how close the other two were before the shit hit the fan. Tim didn't go up however, just moved his torch across the floor and pews in front of him. "Is is because of my dad?" Tim asked after a moment.

"Your dad?" 

Cass stopped Jason from falling over another invisible toy. "The Ouija board," She said, stumbling a bit over Ouija. "Remember?"

It had been so long ago, felt like a lifetime, but Jason did. The first night he'd been in this world, or at least made contact with their family, he'd messed with Tim. 

"Richard said he was burning in hell," Tim said, like Jason didn't already know that.

"He..." What did he say to someone about their alternate dead father? "He wasn't your dad Tim," Jason settled on. 

"How bad was he?" Tim pressed. "Arkham bad or..."

"Tim-"

"Found something," Cass chimed. 

Jason had seen her dawdling over that spot for the past few minutes, so, either she finally decided she was done examining it, or she thought now was a good enough time to stop Tim before he got hurt. Either way, Jason was grateful. 

"It looks like someone has been sitting here," She pointed out the different dust patterns, the renewed dent in the pew stools. 

"So what?" Tim asked, "Dick's just been sitting here?"

"Looks like it," Jason agreed.


End file.
